The Coaching Chronicles

Invaluable

2012-01-27T11:55:00.000-08:00

This post really has nothing to do with fitness, coaching or anything of performance value. Actually, it reminded me exactly why it is so very difficult to write about things that truly move you.......

Sometimes it takes an event that can described as nothing except sorrowful to give you a bold reminder of your mortality.

Bruce Edwards

Bruce Edwards lost his battle with ALS a couple of days ago and while I managed to keep it to the side of my mind for a little while, eventually, it comes to the forefront and everything hits at once. I could talk about Bruce and all that he means to so many people; but instead, I'll talk about a gift I received from him which, what I believe, is one of the the most touching gifts anyone can ever give.

Following the Tour of Kansas City last summer, the entire Mercy Cycling Team and a few others were planning on a barbeque at the Edwards' house. Unbeknownst to me, I was going to arrive very early and leave before the festivities began. As luck would have it, this would set the stage....

I found myself, on a sweltering summer evening, sitting on Bruce's back porch with him just watching the birds and admiring the view. I don't even remember what we talked about. It wasn't even important as I remember this experience. The thing that really stayed with me is that Bruce gave me something so very precious to all of us; time.

You see, time is the ultimate currency. Everything we work for, everything we buy, every dollar or euro or whatever is ultimately traded with time. No matter how much money you have or no matter how many things you own, you will never recoup the time you gave to earn the money to purchase that new shiny bit. You will never recoup the time it took for you to drive that hour to and from work every day and that extra hour of overtime can never be spent with those you love. And that time, is very limited. It's the same for rich and poor, man and woman, black or white. The clock always ticks.

Tick.

Tick.

Tick.

Tick.

the view from the back porch

And just like all currency, we get to choose how we spend time and who we spend it with. Depending on our perception of limitation with upcoming deadlines or events, we spend it more or less wisely on what we want or need. Bruce, more than anyone understood how limited that resource was to him. Yet, here we were, just me and him. Sitting on that porch watching the birds and talking about who knows what. I was worthy of Bruce's time; of a very limited and invaluable resource. That may be one the biggest compliment I've ever received from anyone. It took me a while to understand, but I get it now. Thank you Bruce.

Join SE: 500k Training Camp with Kristian House p/b Nelo’s Cycles

2012-01-02T08:42:00.000-08:00

Camp Flyer HERE

All Source Endurance clients, ask about your special pricing!

Spend 5 days training with the former British National Champion on the same
roads he uses to prepare for his upcoming race season. These same roads and
routes have led him to great successes in previous seasons, now you can take
advantage of the phenomenal training grounds that South Texas has to offer.
Nelo’s Cycles will provide full mechanical and nutritional support for the entire
camp so all you have to worry about is building the base miles like the Pros do.
Every day of riding will be followed by a short clinics featuring industry experts as
Adam Mills of Source Endurance and Nelo Breda, former Brazilian National Team
Coach and former professional racer.

ITINERARY
• Jan 18th – Introductions, 2hr morning
ride, 2hr afternoon ride, 1hr clinic on
fitting, training, season goals.
• Jan 19th – 6hr morning ride,
afternoon rest, evening clinic on off
and on the bike training.
• Jan 20th – 3hr morning ride, 2hr
afternoon TT ride, evening clinic
covering on and off the bike nutrition.
• Jan 21st – 6hr morning ride, afternoon
rest, evening Q&A with Kristian
House.
• Jan 22nd – 6hr morning ride
Five day fully supported camp $350
One day pass available for $80

SIGN UP AT http://www.bikereg.com/14914

BASE CAMP AT HOTEL LA QUINTA 4424 South Mopac Expwy Austin, TX 78735
The camp will be held rain or shine unless the minimum required riders is not met.

For additional information or questions
email info@neloscycles.com or call: 512 338 0505

Mid Season CX Musings... but coming a little late.

2011-12-16T07:53:00.000-08:00

As the cross (CX) season begins its final push towards Nationals and Master's Worlds, some random thoughts come to mind.

CX is as much a learning process as it is an endurance sport:

Source Endurance has done a couple CX clinics this fall with the goal of providing the basic skills from which a solid CX season could be built on. What we didn't have time to explain or show was that the skills are one third of the process. Fitness is also a big part. Experience sums up the final component to CX success.

There is no such thing as a perfect CX race. Everyone will make mistakes and the key is to minimize the effect those mistakes have on your race. Mistakes can be anything from not getting clipped in to sliding down a muddy hill on your stomach. Next, how does each rider react to the mistakes?

At some point there is a limit to how many mistakes you can make before it affects your ability to ride unhindered through all the obstacles of a CX course. This can influenced by number and severity of the crash/ bobble but also by how much you lose in each instance strategically.

General CX Strategy: Keep in mind that this is very dynamic and that the time frame for the 3 stages are dynamic.

Beginning: All out, fast, establish your field position. Take some risks but the general understanding is that you can't win the race in the first couple of laps but you can lose it. Stay upright. Remember that you have to be in a position to win before you can make that happen. Many riders will fail here because of a bad warm up or creative excuse making.

Middle: Once the field position is established, the shift should be towards the tactical race. Remember, you are racing other riders on the course for places. Many inexperienced riders race the course with other riders on it. The goal here is to race to gain advantages that you can exploit over your opponents. Some risks should be taken here and perhaps bigger risks depending on the reward. Often times, you'll see small groups form and break up as the attacks happen. Once you gain an advantage, it's off to the races! But if you are put at a disadvantage, you'll be chasing hard.

Finale: By now, fatigue has started to wear on everyone and depending on how the race has gone thus far, you are either reacting to your opponents punches or they are reacting to yours. However, risk/ reward is now more important as it is dramatically influenced by the tactical situation on the course. The tables can be turned here quickly and the rider with the advantage can quickly become the rider who is stuck in checkmate. The general rule: If you have an advantage, take it to the finish line.

2012 CX National Championships- Men Elite Prediction

2011-12-05T07:08:00.000-08:00

Tim Johnson. That's my prediction and barring injury or illness at this point of the season, and I'm sticking to it. I told a few friends back in September that the one who will win CX Nationals will only begin to see championship form around Thanksgiving. And I'll followup the statement with this, "the guys who are winning consistently in the early and middle season will struggle with the races as nationals approaches." Here is my reasoning:

Course Conditions:

Guaranteed to be icy with snow. With a January average max temperature of 28F, Madison has had at least 3" of snow on the ground in January every year since 1992 except for 2001. Also, anytime your host city has ice skating, snowshoeing and ice fishing on the city calendar, all within 6 days of the Elite races, ice will be a guaranteed feature of the course. This means all the pre-riding, early races, and fall recon of the course is worthless. Ice offers virtually no traction and very few riders, even at the professional level have the necessary combination of mental toughness, horsepower, throttle feathering ability and handling skills to negotiate it at the national championship level.

Tim, however, does have that combination and he has proven it. Looking back the recent national championships and cross referencing them with memory and news, we can review Tim's results:
2000 Overland Park, KS. Ice, snow. 1st.
2005 Providence, RI. Ice, mud. I couldn't seem to find his result from the Dec. 9 event. Any help?
2007 Kansas City, KS. Ice, mud, more ice. 1st.

and...

,

ZEROtraction Cross Film Trailer from Gizmo Pictures on Vimeo.

2009 Bend, OR. Ice, mud. 1st.

The only time that it appears that Tim lost an icy national championship was when Todd Wells won in 2005. However, Todd will not be in Madison in order to make a run at the coming Olympic games.

Advantage, Tim.

Fitness and Form:
Equally, if not more important, is Tim's preparation for the event. It was well publicized that Tim was taking the 2012 CX Champs with a much different approach than year's past. His build up was going to be longer, more gradual and it was not going to include a full road schedule.

There are probably multiple reasons for this but I'll only cover the big ones.

Improvement in quality and depth of field:
Todd Wells said it and I've heard it repeated in many different interviews. CX is bigger and moving away from the fringe. As this shift occurs, more fast riders are concentrating on the CX season and expecting results. Todd Wells said that he is having a more difficult time jumping from the mountain scene to the cross scene and winning as the sport continues to grow. In all likelihood, the next few years could see the increased proliferation of CX specialists in the US. That brings with it faster races, and makes it more difficult to win the races and the UCI points. Indeed, as soon as you have competition, then within a narrow range of individuals training will become a crucial determinant of who wins loses.

Age:
Let's face it. Everyone gets older. While the newest research points that the effects of age can be thwarted, eventually, it does catch up to us all. With aging, the first element that begins to fade is the explosiveness of athletes. At 34 Tim may just now be feeling the effects of this. Vo2 and Aerobic abilities usually are not effected significantly until probably after he retires. However, in an event where only one place matters, one half of 1% can be the difference between a stars and bars jersey and finishing in any other position.

The buildup, both physical and mental:
It was very well publicized that Tim's build started slow. He said it himself in an interview, "I'm going to suck at the beginning." On the other hand, while I've only spoken with Tim briefly a couple of times and never this season, his interviews are very candid and he understand his limits as well his own mortality. I think Tim knows that it will be a tall order to ask someone to go fast from September to January on the CX bike. However, I do disagree with one aspect and that is this reference to the middle of the CX season being a "lull."

The "lull," downtime, mid season break, or whatever you want to call it is entirely over-hyped and under executed. Taking the long hours of training, traveling and racing and replacing them with even more training does not constitute a rest. Also, for proof that a true break does work, join me as we take a trip down recent memory lane and remember that in 2009 Tim suffered a separated shoulder which sidelined him the first part of the CX season. That only led to the most successful season of Tim's career. In 2010, Todd Wells crashed in Fort Collins, putting him on the injured reserve roster for a couple of weeks.

Over the next few weeks, we saw Todd get better and better until he finally won his first CX race of the 2010 season, the National Championship. Also, if you take a gander at the Rapha Focus schedule to see Jeremy Powers' schedule, it appears that he's racing every week. That's alot of travel and a LOT of travel related stress for an athlete who is the fastest CX racer in the US right now. It should be interesting to see how the stress accumulates with each top contender. Take home message here is that in order to race at a national championship level, there needs to be a true rest, constructed or forced, on the calendar.

Also, as we take a quick peek back at some results sheets, you can see Tim inching closer and closer, by time to the front of the race. This points to a couple of things worth note. Tim is getting (relatively) faster while his top competitors' form has stagnated or is starting to slip. Note: this is all very relative and remember a "slow" Jeremy Powers or Ryan Trebon are still capable of riding very fast indeed.

Emotional/ Psychological:
As a Coach, it's always interesting to me to see how elite athletes handle being anything less than a super-rockstar. I could argue that until Tim completely flops, he will remain that. Yet, he only recently, experienced the success that a 3 time national champion is accustomed to.

Sept 14, 2011: I've already placed this link once, but here it is again. Tim claims that he's going to have a slow start to the CX season and appears okay with it.

Nov 6, 2011: In this interview, Tim talks about how he's getting closer to racing with the best, and winning. His patience and confidence were definitely tested the previous 6 weeks but his resolve and trust in his program held fast. He is starting to see the form coming and it appears to be feeding his confidence.

Nov. 28, 2011: Finally, that first win of the season and Tim appears both relieved but also excited for what the remainder of the season holds now that he is riding "fast" again.

Nov 29, 2011: Tim discusses exactly how tough the first part of the season was. Again, you can feel his releif in the interview.

Dec 3, 2011: Tim wins again, confirming his buildup is working.

It takes a tremendous amount of trust in himself, his support personnel, and his program make this leap. Also, it takes an athlete who is comfortable with success and is willing to risk some early hype to make a bigger push towards the finale. For all the above reasons, I peg Tim Johnson as the next US CX National Champion.

The Off Season: It Will Make or Break the Coming Season

2011-11-02T07:45:00.000-07:00

By: John Hobbs, Senior Consultant

The passing of the Road World Championships tells the time of the year. CX-ers are gritting their teeth during eye-popping efforts, winter athletes are preparing for the transition to snow, and roadies have rounded out their season and wrapping up their time off. That time off is just where the rub can occur. It is easy to put your feet up and not think about training, diet, or even unpacking the last few items in your race bag that haven’t seen day-light in four months. However, the off-season to any athlete is an important time in their build for the coming season. Proper mental and physical work during this period can go a long way in setting you up for your goals in the coming training blocks.

Rounding out the season, many athletes are fried whether they realize it or not. Motivation for next spring’s races can carry some straight through the fatigue that comes after a peak. However, most are looking to rest and regroup. And that is the first part of preparing for next season—doing hardly anything. This level of “hardly anything” varies from athlete to athlete, but involves a rest period. Old or new injuries should be addressed as well has just taking a bit of time to fully recover. A classic strategy is to take two weeks to a month completely off. But, this level of recovery is not usually required and will cause some to go stir-crazy. If you’re facing over-training syndrome or life has accumulated (remember, this is a hobby to most of us no matter how much we pretend), then a long duration of inactivity may actually be what is in order. While from a training standpoint, this may not be ideal, the losses are minimal when compared to the potential repercussions of pushing on. For many, however, a solid block of recovery with some activity is just what is needed. A couple of easy recovery rides and some fun time without structure is what’s in order. The idea is not to minimize detraining and stepping too far back. But, again, this is a complex picture with more than just miles ridden to be considered. One way to limit detraining is to avoid excessive time off. Various adaptations occur fairly rapidly ranging from decreased levels of plasma in the blood to loss of mitochondria in the muscle. Luckily, many of the physiological attributes that are quickly lost are able to be regained relatively quickly if detraining doesn’t progress too far. These also respond to a level of “maintenance” training to avoid slipping too far down the slope.

Perhaps a Nutrition Consult is in order?

Assuming a solid recovery takes place, now it’s time to check out that smorgasbord of holiday food and drinks… and then back away. The off-season and early part of training are the times to lose weight. Anecdotally, this is one avenue where racers can have a major impact on the upcoming season. The topic of weight loss and body composition goes beyond simply riding more and eating less. Implementing strategies to achieve your weight loss goals and allow proper recovery are essential. Some view the winter months as a break from strict dieting and plan on losing the weight when the temperatures creep upward. The flaw with this is the effect diet has on your training. As the intensity of training creeps, up so does the need to meet the energy output as well as substrate source with input. This need is what can send your fitness down the tube if weight loss is attempted later in the race calendar. In the end, having a caloric or nutrient deficit does not allow recovery from intense training. The ramifications are two-fold. First, without recovery, athletes face an increased risk of over-training. Increased risk of illness and injury along with power-outputs of a kitten take long periods of rest to bounce back from. Additionally, without adequate recovery, the workouts become ineffective. Fatigue sets in before the goal work rate can be sustained for the prescribed duration. This limits the gains that can be made each training session, and in extreme cases, may not provide sufficient stimulus to provide a training benefit. This draw-back is more difficult to notice as, subjectively, an athlete may not feel too tired or sense that they have only a little twinge of fatigue. In the end, however, they are not able to completely finish a workout, or barely finish the five efforts of the day when they should be doing six. The off and early seasons, when the emphasis is not completely fatiguing efforts but rather relatively low intensities, are the periods to allow for a caloric deficit in order to get closer to the goal weight. A major component of this is the substrates used for energy at the varying intensities—fat (a very abundant energy dense source) versus carbohydrate (a limited source that takes longer to replenish). Even more importantly, this is the period to decrease weight gains. If an athlete can limit themselves to a pound or two of excess, training and weight goals are significantly easier to achieve.

Early off-season is also the time to reflect and plan. Athletes are encouraged to go back and look at the goals that were made for the season and see what contributed to meeting or not meeting them. From there, decide what the next season holds. During this period, athletes still have perspective on the previous year. Later in the off-season when motivation increases, events from the previous season may be forgotten and lead to unrealistic goals or an athlete over-extending themselves not recalling the effects of travel, training, and racing on various parts of life and training itself.

Additionally, early planning allows for a more effective build. While twelve weeks can allow for an athlete to come in to serious form, especially with prior training, additional time enables more freedom to progress at a slower rate. A more gradual build not only aids in preventing injury and over-training by ensuring adequate adaptations, it permits athletes to reach the higher intensity portions of training with greater fitness, allowing for higher work rates and further adaptations. Additionally, it establishes workouts for an athlete’s goals, rather than everybody else’s goals. In the Texas area, early March provides a solid block racing, when up north, one hopes for rides without the threat of black-ice. By having goals established early, proper implementation of intensity duration of workouts can occur. And if goals and the racing calendar are conducive to it, an athlete can have two solid peaks in one season due to the work put in earlier in the year. While it may lead to comments like “dude, it’s the off season, you don’t need to go that hard” from training partners, long term planning allows for the most effective use of training in the off season.

The off-season is typically used to work on an athlete’s “base.” This term, however, has been misused in the past leading to ineffective training. Two major components of a workout are duration and intensity and the respective adaptations each brought. The old school of thought still held by many proposes easy rides of long duration. Adaptations do take place during this type of training and shouldn’t be denied. However, the practicality and effectiveness of these workouts should be called in to question. First, most recreational athletes do not have the luxury of a time commit allowing for 3 plus hours on the bike multiple days a week. This is even more so in the winter months when weather and lack of daylight limit training times. Secondly, research has shown that many of the adaptations that take place at lower intensities also take place at relatively higher intensities with a decreased duration. In the end, athletes can begin to make fitness gains in 45 to 90 minute training session either outdoor or indoors. It has to be remembered that that the body works on a stimulus-response system. While workouts may or not include maximal efforts depending on the training developed between the coach and athlete, various fitness gains can be made. And above all else, loses can be minimized with proper implementation of intensity.

The primary goals of an effective off-season are recovery and preparation. Recovery from injuries as well as prevention can take place with little detriment to the upcoming race season. By becoming organized and establishing realistic goals for the darker colder months, athletes can emerge at a higher fitness level and can succeed in achieving an ambitious peak.

Cyclocross Course Design, Technical skills, Fitness

2011-10-19T21:56:00.000-07:00

Groups of riders usually signal un-technical riding.
Photo Credit: Lyne Lamoureux

Following some recent races both at the national and local level, some have been asking, commenting, and wondering how Cyclocross (CX) course design plays into the outcome of the race. This proves a very interesting topic and something that could be debated indefinitely. But first let's talk about some things we do know regarding CX course design and conditions.

First, we know that there are virtually no statistics kept in cycling. At least not nearly detailed, or accurate enough to warrant a color man in the commentary booth. The next time you watch a major sport on TV, note how many statistics you are bombarded with, "this team is 3 of 8 on 3rd and long today." Or, more vague, "this quarterback has a tendency to look to the left first, then throw right in the red zone." Even, "this team is 19-1 when leading in the 4th quarter." Cycling simply does not have those type of statistics available. Instead they rely on commentators entertaining the spectators with stories or anecdotal evidence. No one really knows what Sven Nys' win ratio is in mud, when he leads by 3sec with 1 lap to go. Expect to see more on this in later posts.

Besides the ambiance, the most notable difference between UCI CX courses and the local events most racers attend is course design. As a whole, UCI courses tend to flow better, are faster and are much more technical at speed while local events tend to be much more compressed and constricted, slowing average speed in the belief that tight courses favor the less fit rider who can handle a bike better. (Obviously there are reasons for the difference such as constrictions for venue selection between UCI and local events, but that's beyond the realm of this discussion.) However, lap times for CX races tend to run 7-8 minutes each at the elite level and around 9-10 minutes for the non-elite categories. This is important because it sets the stage for the conjecture: Tight, overly technical and ultimately slow speed course design, while meant to favor the more technically skilled rider, favors the racers who are more fit.

The theory with the course design is to mitigate the fitness component of race in favor of the technical skills. The premise of the theory is that because some have better bike handling skills, but not as much fitness, the more turns the better. And the tighter the turns, the better. This allows the handlers to show off their skills and gain ground on the more fit, yet less proficient bike drivers. Unfortunately, a different result usually ensues.

Often times, a course designed as stated above will contain many tight turns that force speeds to drop dramatically and often during each lap. Hairpin 180 degree turns are the best example. Is this technical? Absolutely, but not technical enough to put the favor in the hands of the superb bike handlers. This is because once a rider has the fitness to reach the terminal velocity of the corner (speed at which physics limits absolute traction and speed of the corner) then the advantage dealt to the bike handlers is eliminated and is shifted back to the more fit, less technical rider. Why?

Confusing, ain't it?

Because once that velocity is reached and the brakes are applied, everyone is RESTING! If each hairpin 180 takes 7 seconds to negotiate, then that's 7 seconds of total rest, which can seem like an amazing eternity to anyone who has done micro intervals or anaerobic capacity work (imagine getting 7 extra seconds to rest). The net effect is that the fit rider is more fresh, relatively speaking. The more fresh rider is able to hit the gas, HARD out of every turn for the entire race if they are rested enough, relatively. The repeated, near maximal efforts will always wear more on the less fit riders and result in them eventually being dropped.

So how is the technical rider able to compete?

In order make a CX course that benefits technical ability, course must be set up in a way that allows those who have fantastic handling skills can stay at speed, while those without the skills, must pull the brakes. But the terminal velocity of the turns must be high enough while the speed is allowed to stay high enough without expending energy while riding a particular section. (The videos below are a great example of needing more skills to go faster, regardless of fitness)

However, there is one caveat to all this talk about bike handling... cyclo-cross will always be an endurance based sport. This means that while fitness alone may not be a sufficient quality to succeed in CX, it will always be necessary. Often times, superb bike handling only accounts for a handful of seconds per 7-8 minute lap and while they can make a difference they should be put in perspective. An 8 minute lap is 480 seconds. So, if superb handling allows up to 12 seconds per lap over another rider the net result is a ~2.5% gain which if applied to a 60 minute elite race is just under 90 seconds. Not much. You can practice technique for races, but you can not fake fitness.

Time indices 0:55-2:37 and 4:43-5:38, but it's a good video of Jingle CX in Iowa City, IA.

The problem with applying science to training.

2011-08-02T01:00:00.000-07:00

John Hobbs, MEd

Senior Consultant

Many of our athletes have a history of marginally following haphazard training plans or blindly trusting current and old training fads, which had effectively prevented them from realizing most of their athletic potential. As we have learned from our clients, equally detrimental is the blanket application of scientific literature to training. Studies are frequently referenced in on-line articles, chat rooms, and sometimes discussed to some extent in group workouts. Discussion does empower the athlete that is more knowledgeable and allows them to effectively debunk obsolete methods and “back in my day” training regimens. However, often missed are the intricacies of research that lead to inappropriate application of study findings.

In reality, scientific literature can be about as dry as warning labels that come pasted to equipment. Most people don’t have the desire to stay current on the literature and really have no need to—that’s what the consultant is for. But in the event that somebody has a topic of interest or sees a reference to a journal article, it is important to be able to have a correct interpretation of what is presented and understand the limits. Below are just a few of the common caveats of studies that require attention before training methods are implemented or removed.

Population

With the nature of exercise physiology, a plethora of research designs exist. They range from molecular level comparisons of rat muscles to kangaroos on treadmills to average speed during a time trial. The articles that most people will never see involve direct measures of performance in the given sport. When looking at applying the information and questioning its relevance to your training, several issues should be addressed.

First, who are the researchers using as their guinea pigs? Often, untrained individuals are used due to their availability. Most athletes don’t want to risk their training to become part of a study that may be detrimental or use a placebo. This may or may not have an effect on the data, depending on what is being analyzed. In many cases, however, a stronger argument relating to performance can be made if trained individuals are used. This is due to the fact that untrained individuals will usually show an improvement just by the nature of becoming trained. On the flip side, if an intervention can’t produce an improvement in untrained individuals, it’s safe to question its efficacy in trained athletes until proven otherwise.

Timing

A library of literature exists showing “interval x,” “routine y” and “exercise z” showed improvements in performance. But the context of the studies has to be questioned. As already noted, getting competitive athletes to become part of a training study is difficult at best, let alone during the race season after many hours dedicated to intensity. So a great time to herd up some road cyclists in to a lab is in the late fall or winter. However, athletes have usually detrained a bit and the typical duration of a study is usually relatively short can skew data. As a result, the training improvements may be magnified or just due to the fact that Joe Racer is doing hard intervals.

With the periodization model currently accepted as the most effective training design, the implementation of a change in training based on literature can be difficult to place. Will the athlete get the most benefit with early season work? Would it be more productive when they are stronger later in the season? Or, will it even be effective once intense structured training begins?

Study Design

With a limited number of trained volunteers and a short period to follow them, how do researchers design a study to ensure that interval x will make you faster? The honest answer is that they don’t. Numerous comparisons can be completed with just one intervention. In studies looking at diet, questions arise regarding a placebo group, the amount of benefit from the change, if the subjects are just eating more, if the percent change in another part of the diet affects the results, changes in calories burned versus calories consumed and so on. With limited resources, different studies have to be done to chip away at the different possibilities. This is one reason why it seems that some research seems redundant—it’s analyzing a different aspect. So when an improvement is shown to occur, it is important to look at the comparisons being made.

So, to illustrate the points, lets say we’re looking at body weight squats and a study that showed they increase time trial performance. We’ll say two groups of cyclist are used with one group completing their normal training and another group does an additional set of squats twice a week for two months. It’s hard to differentiate if the gains are due to the use of squats specifically or the fact that Joe Racer is training more and has periods of higher intensity. Plus, with the study done in the off season, it can’t be determined if the benefits will be seen in six months at the peak event. To further the problem, will the squats provide a benefit when replacing or supplementing high intensity training in a trained athlete during the meat of the training program?

One role of exercise physiology is to connect application in the real world to data in the lab. The catch statement of “well, that works in the lab, but not the real world” is a cop out to not delve deeper in to how something may or may not affect athletes. The role of science in providing sound training strategies is invaluable. It keeps us from adhering to silly things, such as using cigarettes to clear our lungs before each workout. And while an article may seem to provide an avenue to revolutionize the way we see training and performance, the fact is that these discoveries are far and few; rather, each one is a piece of a larger project giving us direction.

Asking about various training ideas is vital. It keeps us on our toes and gives us new ideas. And when an athlete brings ideas to us, especially backed up by a reliable literature source, it’s important that they understand why we may be apprehensive in immediately implementing them and why we could say “I don’t see the harm, why don’t we give it a shot?”

Nature Valley Grand Prix St. Paul Criterium, When Numbers Alone Can Lead You Astray

2011-07-11T07:48:00.000-07:00

Sometimes, looking at numbers can give you a realistic idea of how hard an event is. Using Intensity Factor number from Training Peaks helps us to understand and quantify the difficulty of the event. Coupled with the Training Stress Score, and normalized power an experienced exercise physiologist and coach can realistically estimate how tough any particular ride or race was.

But what happens when the numbers just don't add up? For each event, Source Endurance consultants make it a point to engage every athlete in some way to get a report/ debriefing of how it all went down. This usually occurs during the scheduled consult.

A few weeks ago Shadd Smith competed in the Nature Valley Grand Prix (NVGP) Stage Race. Following each stage Shadd would upload his data where it would be examined and scrutinized. The numbers tell one story. However, when coupled with the daily race summaries provided by Shadd, an entirely new layer of data comes to light along with some new realizations of the limits of human physiology.

In the picture below, you can see the non-smoothed race in its entirety. The first thing that comes to mind is that it looks almost like there are attacks the entire race. But wait, is that true? I've drawn two lines; one at Shadd's threshold and the other is at 600W. This wattage seems to be a good measure of how many top-end efforts an elite athlete makes. To put it in perspective, an amateur race with nine +600W efforts in 5 minutes can cause a irreversible split in the field.

At the NVGP, Shadd produced around 15 of these efforts per every five minutes for over an hour. All while the United Health Care Team (UHC) rode "tempo" on the front, meaning that not only was the field not splitting, Shadd was actually just sitting in the wheels, a testament to the difference between amateur and professional racing.

Towards the end of the file, you'll see where Shadd was finally unhitched, along with nearly every other rider in the field as UHC began the lead out. This led him to ask the question, "if the normalized power from the race was significantly less than my threshold power, why did myself and so many guys get dropped?" Indeed, even with those high power spikes, the normalized power was only 299W for the entire race. Let's investigate.....

Below you see a smoothed version of the same race. Notice how the speed and power are very cyclical, indicative that not a lot of attacking is going on. Rather, because of the UHC escort, the race was just fast, all the surges were mostly likely accelerations coming out of corners as well as the energy required to improve position. You can see that toward the end of the race, the pace begins to edge upward. With the accumulated fatigue from the day's efforts, this proved too much for many riders, amateur and professional.

But....

His output numbers for the event are well within his ability level, by the numbers. How would it be possible to gap off that many excellent riders? To get a better view, we'll examine the non-smoothed, zoomed in view of a ~5min block of the stage.

Confirming the previous conjecture, it does appear that cyclical peaks and valleys are a product of the race course which required slowing for turns, then accelerating back to speed. However, you'll notice the large bit of time where the is no power production, or very little. That little bit of rest, that coasting is a godsend in the short term. The opportunity to recover just a bit makes the prospect of what is to come just a bit more bearable.

However, the coasting is also the root cause of why so many PRO and elite riders were sent home that evening with a time loss. In order to coast for ~38% of the race and maintain a normalized power of 299W, there must be some hard efforts, and many of them as you'll note from the amount of time spent over 600W.

This brings me to the issue of recovery. For every effort, there is a required recovery period. As the intensity rises, recovery time increases. However, at some point, or perhaps always, this recovery time appears to increase exponentially or at least in a non-linear fashion.
For example say at an intensity of 200W the recovery time is at a 1:1 ratio.
300W, 1:1.5
325W, 1:2
350W, 1:4
375W, 1: 8 and so on....

This could explain how a race that appears very benign "by the numbers" was in fact one of the hardest races Shadd has ever completed. However, without the race summary from him and the post race consult, any coach and many exercise physiologists would have a difficult time understanding this race and why the athlete, Shadd would find such a race so hard.

2011 Source Endurance Kits available for pre order

2011-06-29T13:52:00.000-07:00

Download the order form HERE:2011 Summer Verge Sport Order Form

Orders are due by Tuesday July 5.

Does Fat Actively Restrict Improvement in Muscle Force Generation? The Body Weight-Muscle Mismatch

2011-05-25T09:09:00.000-07:00

By GRETCHEN REYNOLDS. Link to original article here:

Recently scientists at Penn State sewed tiny weighted vests and slipped them around the middles of healthy laboratory rats, hoping to discover how animals’ muscles respond to changes in body size. The vests increased the animals’ weight by as much as 36 percent. After five days, the scientists found that the rats’ muscles contained increased amounts of certain proteins involved in the generation of muscle force. The muscles were redesigning themselves to be stronger.

In a separate group of obese rats, however, no such changes were evident. The rats were heavy, generally exceeding the weight of the animals wearing vests, and they continued to pack on ounces during the experiment. But their muscles did not show the same increases in the proteins that improve muscle power. The obese animals were not getting stronger as they became heavier. They were in danger of becoming too fat to move.

How muscles recognize changes in body weight — and why sometimes they don’t — are questions that are likely to have relevance for people, and not just lab rats. Studies have found that “individuals who are extremely overweight often complain that moving is difficult,” said James H. Marden, a professor of biology at Penn State and co-author of the rat study. It’s possible that their muscular strength is not keeping pace with their growing body size.

But why there should be such a mismatch between body weight and muscle strength is unknown. So Dr. Marden and his colleagues began, a few years ago, to study how different creatures deal with changes in their body size and what that might suggest about the human body. They began their work with moths. Flying creatures obviously must deal accurately with body mass or risk plummeting from the sky.

As it turned out, moths are quite good at gauging what they weigh. The bigger the moth, the more its muscles showed activity from one specific gene, the troponin T gene, that expresses various proteins that help muscles to contract. In general, the more of these proteins that a muscle contains, the more forcefully it contracts.
Even when the scientists artificially increased the insects’ body weight, using the simple expedient of gluing lead shot to the moths’ abdomens, the insects’ muscles responded quickly and appropriately. Within days, the troponin T gene in the moths’ wing muscles was pumping out more of the proper proteins to make the muscles stronger. The lead-laden insects had no trouble staying aloft.

But the situation was quite different when the scientists started looking at animals that were fat. Moths don’t become obese, but certain strains of lab rodents do. “We wondered whether there might be a relationship between obesity and the action” of the troponin T gene in muscles, said Rudolf J. Schilder, a postdoctoral fellow at Penn State and lead author of the rat study.

There was. When they biopsied the leg muscles of rats bred to be fat, they found that the chubby animals’ troponin T gene seemed to malfunction. Their muscles contained some of the proteins needed to increase muscle power, but not all of them — and none in as much profusion as in lean rats, even those of a comparable body weight. “The fat rats’ muscles seemed to think that the animals were much smaller than they actually were,” Dr. Schilder said. Their muscles hadn’t come to terms with how fat the animals had become.

Dr. Schilder emphasized that he and his colleagues do not think that troponin T activity, although it is an important marker of muscle function, explains everything about how muscles respond to changes in body weight. The process almost certainly involves a host of other genes and physiological reactions, he said.

It also is not known what mechanisms cause the troponin T gene to malfunction in fat animals, although fat itself is an obvious suspect. “Fat is a very physiologically active tissue,” Dr. Schilder said. “It produces hormones and biochemical messages” that might well disrupt how the troponin T gene functions. Through continuing experiments at his lab, Dr. Schilder hopes to discern more about the role that fat plays in muscle genetics and how much body fat must accumulate before troponin T activity is affected.

But perhaps the most pressing unanswered question about body weight and muscles is what this research means for people. “It’s impossible to know at the moment,” Dr. Marden said, since human studies have not been conducted. But his group’s findings are “suggestive,” he said. “It seems likely” that there are changes in troponin T activity in obese people’s muscles and that, as a result, “it really is physiologically hard for them to move,” he said.

If so, he continued, “we may need to rethink” some exercise programs and suggestions for obese people. “Maybe we should promote activities that require less muscular strain,” he said, like a swim instead of a walk.

“No one is trying to rationalize” remaining heavy, he added, but his group’s work does indicate that misapprehensions about the extent of one’s weight problem may run deep. At the cellular level, muscles and genes may be unable to “understand,” he said, or accept how much a person weighs, a delusion with which many of us, in our minds, can sympathize.

Short term weight gain seen when traveling

2011-04-05T12:10:00.000-07:00

Recently the question has been posed: Why do athletes tend to gain weight on travel days and is there anything that can be done to minimize it? It usually seen on travel days and goes away over the next day or two after the travel is complete. This can pose a problem for performance as it can make the athlete feel “sluggish” and “stale” on the day of competition. In that respect, we will give it some time on this blog as it is something to worth addressing.

Cause:

Ultimately, the issue at hand is due to water retention. Unless the athlete truly makes an effort of it, there won’t be any weight gain due to fat. Also, there is the increase of stress when traveling as the athletes’ normal life (diet and schedule) change.

Some findings, and how they relate to athletes…

Dietary Sodium.

It’s well documented that in the American diet, sodium consumption runs rampant. Sodium has effect of holding water within the body as it stimulates the kidneys to re-uptake it. This leads to “cankles” and the bloated feeling in athletes.

Also, it can and does have the effect of elevating blood pressure. Many athletes will run blood pressures on the low side of “normal.” Elevated blood pressure increases the afterload of the heart, meaning that more pressure must be generated to overcome systemic resistance, which means that stroke volume is decreased, which decreases performance. Many on the road eateries have menus overloaded with sodium which leads to water retention via sodium’s chemical properties which can hinder performance.

Glycogen storage:

The USOC started has funded many studies looking at different strategies as ways for prolonging exercise/ training capacity. They confirmed that Glycogen storage is in a 1:4 ratio, glycogen: water and will lead to some weight gain in the form of water.

With that knowledge and that of athletes and how fast athletes can burn and thus synthesize glycogen, it is reasonable that the athlete’s “normal” diet is very rich in carbohydrates (CHO), which are then converted to glycogen and stored in the muscles and liver along with water, lots of water. Some of the water retention isn’t so much retention as it is the athlete topping off the glycogen stores. In short, the athlete is actually rested and ready to go. In this instance the short term weight gain actually helps the athlete.

Treatment: advantages/ disadvantages

Diuretics:

They’re quick and as easy as eating tic tacs. But the repercussions can be widespread, problematic and possibly illegal (I’m not up to speed on the WADA list).

Common drugs- I could list some common ones, but Wikipedia is better! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diuretic

Foods- Really? Yes. Watermelon, Green Tea, Tomatoes, Asparagus, Apple Cider Vinegar (stabilizes potassium), Artichokes, Cranberries, Parsley, Horseradish, Oats (silica).

Low sodium diet:

Sometimes it’s best to pack your own food and take it with you on long haul road trips so you don’t end up eating at Applebee’s or something equally as gross. If you have to eat out, aim solely for the low sodium items, if you can. Here’s a link to the restaurant nutritional info:

http://www.dietfacts.com/fastfood.asp

or the iphone app, just search “restaurant nutrition”

Compression Garments:

They promote circulation and re-circulation which prevents the blood from pooling and at least lets everything recirculate and return to the kidneys for reabsorption or secretion. They are very good for after events when athletes are dehydrated and orthostatically intolerant.

Flushing with water:

Also a good idea provided enough is consumed to make you urinate every hour-ish. However, when driving all day, no one likes to stop that often. And holding it that long on airplane is tortuous! Also, there’s the possibility of hyponutremia from drinking too much water.

Travel Schedule:

Perhaps the best way to deal with this is to get to the event site a day earlier, say 48 hours before the event is scheduled to start. That gives athletes a chance to re-adjust and to “deflate.” Also, it provides the opportunity to do an actual ride the day before the race. Many athletes tend to do better the 2^nd day, and if the first day can be done before the event, it could help.

Analyzing the Tour of New Braunfelds Criterium Sprint

2011-03-08T20:22:00.000-08:00

Every now and then we'll have an athlete produce a break through performance that truly is worth talking about. Jed Rogers sent me this file a while back his finishing sprint immediately stood out, mostly because it was definitely better than I expected to see for February. Jed has worked hard in the last few months to overcome a 2010 ending injury which required a good deal of off the bike work just to get him back onto two wheels. Since then, the focus has been on getting him able to reach the finish line. Obviously, the best sprint in the world makes no difference if the rider can not get to the finish line. Perhaps this makes the final two minutes of Jed's race even more intriguing because his effort proved the best of two worlds: a superb sprint with lots of power but also a lack of sprinter "sharpness" as shown by some miscalculations which ultimately derailed an opportunity for a February win.

Let's start by looking at the final two minutes of the race:

Final two minutes. Yellow: power (dotted lines every 250W), Blue: Speed (dotted lines at 30 and 35mph).

The first thing to notice is the steep ramp of the power output. This is fairly indicative of a field sprint. You can see how the power fluctuates erratically as Jed battles and maneuvers to maintain his position. But where things get interesting is the last 560 meters.

The numbers of the last 2 minutes are fairly impressive in and of themselves but they are even more so when you examine them more closely in the context of the sprint. For all you numbers folks:

2min.

Work complete: 57kJ

Average Power: 482W

Average Speed: 31.2mph.

And the numbers of the last 35 seconds....

Final 35 seconds:

Work Completed: 31kJ

Power (min, max, avg): 0, 1384, 910 W

Speed (min, max, avg): 30.8, 37.6, 34.8 mph.

Final 35sec: Yellow: power (dotted lines every 250W), Blue: Speed (dotted lines at 30 and 35mph).

In the last few seconds of the race, Jed describes the sprint from his vantage point:

"I found myself at 550m or so and was way too far back so I had to make a move to get into position." This is the initial acceleration from 30-34 mph that does not show here. From there Jed was looking for a place in line to punch in, grab a quick 'rest' and sprint. However, right as he was beginning to get settled a fateful series of events ended his chances of victory.

"Just as the winner was jumping, I had to stop pedaling, juice my brakes, and maneuver around in search of daylight to sprint." This can be seen as the power curve nose-dives, along with a 4mph decrease in speed (12%). But more importantly was that all of his relative forward momentum was gone and all the energy invested thus far to make that move happened had to be reinvested in order to hold even. And hold even he did.

"In the end, it was the top 3 of us, all frozen in place but all sprinting as hard as we could while not gaining on each other." Jed comes back with an incredible ~1400W effort after 3 previous 1000W efforts in the last 20 seconds. This effort not only gets him up to speed fast but re-accelerates him beyond his 34.8mph to 37.6mph. That in and of itself is an amazing feat and not something that most bike racers are even capable of producing!

Jed finished 3rd in this race. However, the things he learned will pay dividends forever. Also, the sprint data provides some superb insight to what a sprinter of his caliber is capable of.

Keeping the Early Season Productive

2011-02-15T08:25:00.000-08:00

Faced with abnormally high snow falls, shorter days, or wicked cold temps, keeping motivation to train is a mixture of art, motivation, and the ability to fool yourself in to thinking that you’re having fun. So, how is this facilitated by the coach? A bulk of this comes down to the athlete and their goals. Individuals who peak for cross season are going to have different goals and structure than an individual who is looking to be flying in March and April. Athletes with goals later in the year have the luxury of incorporating more cross training into their schedule. Keeping in mind the training principal of specificity, activities that benefit cycling can be incorporated and still allow a change of pace. Aerobic exercises such as cross country skiing are a great supplement to the schedule and allow athletes to still get to train outdoors. Depending on the schedule we can start weaning from cross training to more bike oriented time in the spring. Or, if there’s enough snow and the athlete wants another rig hanging in the garage, the snow bike is also an option. This is similar to a mountain bike, but modified with extremely fat tires. They provide great training opportunities if you can find an open area to ride. Public places that allow cross country skiing in large open areas, such as local golf courses or a farm that turns in to a winter Nordic center, can offer a trail system for you to follow.

But what if you don’t live in areas with snow or only want to ride? The health club can have the answer. While some athletes may laugh at the thought of spin classes, they can be a great training tool. They don’t provide a great deal of overload and add a little “slop” to the periodization model since they are all over the place with intensity. But, they prevent fitness loss due to detraining, and can provide stimulation for some positive physiological changes. Plus, based on each athlete’s motivation and schedule, we have to consider what is the lesser of two evils —having greater control over the training and adding an increased risk to mental fatigue and burnout from strict trainer time and rides in bad weather, or sacrifice some of the workout quality a couple days of the week with possible increased focus on goal workouts.

Then, there are those who really need true saddle time on their own bike. This could be due to daily schedules that are more conducive to solo training, personal preference, or the fact that the athlete’s goals for the season have key workouts during these winter and spring months. Often these individuals are relegated to “pretend riding” in the basement or garage. The key to these training sessions is providing enough stimulation to avoid boredom. Some individuals may not have a problem with this as a set of headphones and a power meter are something they enjoy. The act of putting up the assigned wattage and the drive to see certain numbers provides enough stimulation. Videos and other tricks are always good fallbacks. But as a coach, the overall layout of the workout can have an effect. If a peak is near, the athlete is doing hard and short intervals as part of a typical build. These efforts are great for the trainer since it is a very controlled environment compared to the road, and the frequent changes in intensity provide variety. With the short nature of intense workouts, athletes who aren’t close to a peak may also get these intervals. But wait, doesn’t that go against periodization? Yes, it does. Often these intervals are not implemented during certain phases of an athlete’s build. But, with the benefit of initial rapid progress, extra recovery needed between workouts, and a decrease in overall volume during these training phases, a period of high intensity can help break up the trainer suffer-fests.

Even with the all the benefits a hard VO2 type block can provide on the trainer, in many cases it’s not ideal. Care must be taken to ensure that the intense workouts are challenging and within the realm of reason. In the winter athletes usually can’t put up the same numbers compared to when the workouts were assigned in-season. Often these early spring months require higher volumes at a lower intensity. So, the goal is to find other ways to add variety. As a result, lower intensity intervals will cycle through work and rest periods much more rapidly than during the summer months. Rather than 10 minute intervals with 3 minutes rest, trainer sessions may have 3 or 4 minute efforts with 1 minute rest. Or over/under sets are also prescribed. They provide short periods at varying intensities. With a brief decrease in intensity, large amounts of work

In the end, each workout needs to have a particular goal. Often athletes peaking in the spring and early summer are in critical stages of their build where workouts that are not stressing a particular system are essentially a waste of time. For others, however, the focus of a period may be keeping most of the fitness and making it to the warmer months. Short term and long term goals as well the variety of resources can make for a wide variety of training programs.
- John Hobbs, Senior Consultant

Did the ITT Results at Cross Nationals Act as a Valid Call Up Method?

2010-12-13T23:28:00.000-08:00

By now, most of us are home and the CX Nationals hangover is in full effect. All the, "what ifs, could haves, and if onlys" have been recounted way too many times and, as we all return to the real world, or even the off-season, some lingering complaints and questions remain about the 2010 championship event.

Complaints at events of this caliber are typically equal in quantity to excuses but a few things are obvious. First and foremost, every single one of the winners earned every thread of that stars and stripes jersey. Congratulations to everyone! Second is that the crowd was definitely something that American CX racing has yet to see. Hopefully, Tom Schuler can keep that momentum rolling and Madison January 2012 will be even an even bigger spectacle to behold.

A consistent complaint that was heard throughout the week involved the Cyclocross ITT, the result from which dictated call up order for the national championship race although the ITT was on a different day, with different weather conditions. Also, the ITT was run on a completely different course, which means different surface properties. The possibility of different physical demands and handling skill sets affecting the outcome of the race loomed.

We looked at the new call up method and even called upon some statistical expertise with the hope of being able to answer a question that everyone asked at some point over the weekend: Did the ITT results at cross nationals act as a valid call up method?

In statistical terms, "is there a significant correlation between the time trial performance and race performance?"

In order to examine this question, only results from racers who completed both events could be looked at. We accomplished this using voodoo magic and something called casewise deletion of missing data. This removed the first row of call ups from the equation. Also, it got rid of everyone that did not start the ITT as well as anyone who did not finish the championship race. Remember that we're only looking at the validity of the ITT as a call up method. If the ITT and the race aren't completed, then a necessary piece of data is missing in order to be considered.

Next we applied this analysis only to the races with more than 25 athletes completing both competitions. The larger sample size leads to more precision in the calculation and thus better quality of information.

Results: After using some spreadsheet ninja skills to work some super sweet math skills that a guy named Pearson discovered back in late 1800's we were able to come up with some results. First, all the races that we applied the above standards to showed significant and strong correlations. The "p-value" of less than 0.05 is widely accepted in academic literature as a significant finding and the p < 0.01 is even better.

Men
Single speed: r = .85   p < 0.05

13-14: r = 0.91           p < 0.01 for all other races
15-16: r = 0.81
17-18: r = 0.90
30-34: r = 0.90
35-39: r = 0.87
40-44: r = 0.87
45-49: r = 0.90
50-54: r = 0.80

Women
30-34: r = 0.66
40-44: r = 0.88

What does this mean?
Athletes that perform well in the ITT, are also performing well in the race when compared to other athletes who completed both events.

Ultimately it could be said that the different ITT day, weather, surface conditions and course difference did not matter.

Why does this happen?
Simply put, cyclocross is a combination of fitness and bike handling. Those athletes that are superbly proficient in both of those general traits will excel in the sport and outperform those athletes who are not as proficient in both, or lack one trait all together.

Wrapping up, answer the questions we posed earlier: Yes, the ITT has been shown to be a valid call up method and yes, ITT results and race performance are strongly correlated.

Of course, a control is needed for starting position in ITT performance. This could address the issue that start position could affect race performance.

And finally, don't forget the number one rule of statistics, correlation does not imply causation.

Special thanks goes out to Alyson D Abel, MS and her mad crazy spreadsheet ninja skills.

Announcing the Source Endurance Tactics Clinic

2010-12-03T12:55:00.000-08:00

Reflections from the 1st Half of CX Season: Case Study in specific training

2010-11-01T09:15:00.000-07:00

Recently we discussed cyclo-cross (CX) in regards to sport specificity and how it is a unique discipline with it's very own set of skills that must be mastered in order to be proficient. Accompanying that specific skill set of CX, the specific fitness of CX (Click here for that picture: CX= yellow, Crit= Red, TT= Green). Now that we've seen what a CX race looks like the fun part is getting the athlete to duplicate those efforts, or different aspects of the efforts exerted in a CX race.

For everyone that has raced a hard fought, tooth and nail sort of CX race, there is no doubt that it is a very hard discipline. Also, as training progresses with each athlete, some constants arise when confronted with CX specific training. First, there is no desire or motivation to do a full speed "training race" in CX. The physical and emotional stress is too great to ask one to race Saturday and Sunday, then turn around and do "training" races during the week. Everyone goes flat and everyone quickly begins a downward spiral. Talk to Euro CX Camp alumni over the last few years. Not a single guy speaks of being "fit and flying" at the end of the campaign. Instead, they answer that they are "beat up and exhausted."

The second constant is that "those specific intervals are HARD!" Indeed they are, and indeed they should be! In order to push your limits further, it is necessary to push to that border in training. Albeit, in a constructive manner that reinforces positive adaptation. Intervals of the intensity and duration relevant to CX racing must be managed carefully and in conjunction with thorough feedback from the athlete, otherwise it gets overdone and the athlete either 1) stops doing the specific intervals, or 2) does them and digs a big hole which could take a few weeks to climb out of.

The spoils of getting the intervals right and doing the hard work are rewarding indeed. Consistent lap times (showing high fatigue resistance) and that ability to ride above and beyond yourself when it really matters are easiest traits to recognize from a performance standpoint. However the psychological benefit of knowing you are fit and riding fast is equally important.

I've got some data compiled using some races as a guide, then looking at how the specific training relates to the demands of the races. Let's take a look:

First we'll take a look at the pedal forces vs pedal velocity in a Quadrant Analysis view. In particular, the outer edge of the waxing crescent moon shape represents the extremes of CX racing. Note how with the training, this athlete has been able to maintain that general shape, especially on the top end...

CX Races we have power data for (above)


CX Specific training (above)

Now, we'll look at another view, and that's cadence vs. power output. CX is unique in that there is a large amount of accelerating and with that, an equally large amount of high force/ low cadence efforts to generate high powers (vs. low force/ high cadence found in criteriums). Again, be sure to pay attention to the edges of the point groupings. That is where races are made and that is where the athlete must improve.

CX racing: cadence vs. power production

CX training: cadence vs. power production

These specific workouts are already paying dividends as this client is seeing his form improve over the weeks of the CX season despite numerous races and limited recovery. This data set, in conjunction with that from other CX racing clients, helps to widen the view in our "library," further allowing for the creation of more effective workouts to better prepare them for disciplines as specific as cyclo-cross.

To everyone out there wondering, "Am I doing the right thing for CX?" Know that proper and specific CX training is distinctly possible. And when it's done the right way, it really is fun!

Texas. Stepping into the CX Scene

2010-10-20T08:18:00.000-07:00

We did another CX Clinic down in Austin and the biggest surprise was that there really are a large number of CX racers down south! Everyone is a little behind the rest of the US with the CX setup, but that is changing rapidly.

First it starts with old road parts on a used frame. Then, new CX bike that actually works well. Next, add spare wheels in the pit. Follow that with a complete spare bike (usually the bike from the first step). Follow that with 2 completely new, mid level bikes, one with tubular tires. Finally, two high end CX bikes with tubular wheels and tires to boot. With the level of enthusiasm in Texas for cycling in general, look for this region to rocket through this progression and produce some quality CX riders in the future. My prediction, Kevin Fish. Watch for him. The schedule for CX is currently restricted to reduce the number of events, but that can't last; as CX gains in momentum, so will the demand to have more races.

Joseph Schmalz (KCCX) and Chris Wallace (KCCX alumni) helped to teach the clinic, and a fantastic job they did! Those two have a vast amount of knowledge in the sport and simply having them at the clinic helped others to see up close how the next level does things. Thanks to them for helping.

Finally, everyone followed up the clinic with the CX season opener at the Driveway in Austin. Fun times were had by all!

Finally, I found this video of lap 1 in the UCI GP Gloucester CX. Everyone wanted to see how fast the pros go and what it looks like for them. Here you go. I watched it a couple of times and found that I liked the levers in the frame as it shows the braking (front vs rear) zones and how fast the rider rips through the gears upon accelerating. Also, be aware that this guy is in the BACK of the field. Your contenders are probably noticeably faster on every section.

Enjoy!

GP Gloucester Lap 1 UCI from colin reuter on Vimeo.

CX Clinic 2.0. Austin, TX

2010-10-07T07:39:00.000-07:00

The first clinic in KC was so much fun that we decided to do another one in Austin! October 16 prior to the season opener. Here's the flyer and some pics from CX Clinic 1.0 in KC.

Se Cx Clinic Atx

Shadd Smith teaching at the CX Clinic in KC.

Alyson Abel enjoys some skills practice


Joe Schmalz teaching pre-ride strategy


The tents are up and we're ready to go

CX is Upon us!

2010-09-07T06:00:00.000-07:00

For everyone north of the Mason Dixon line, it's official: the 2010 road season has drawn to an end. Now it's time for Cyclo-cross (CX)! Most of us pull the CX bike off the wall, air up the tires and take it out to marvel at exactly how rusty the CX skills have become. Some of us, okay, many of us have been looking forward to the "real" 2010 season for some time and are ready to get things started.

In the KC area CX has over 25 high quality racing days on the calendar. This has given rise to CX as the new primary season for cycling. And why not have CX as your primary competitive season? Two bikes, and a multitude of tires and other equipment are used. Events are short and easy to attend for the entire family!

So just jump onto your knobby tires and it's off to CX we go right? Well... As the sport continues to evolve and grow, so does the preparation of the competition. Source Endurance has been researching the specificity of CX and how best to train for it. The process is challenging and the results show the spoils of all the hard work, both from the research and the athletes who have collected a number of top honors and a few UCI points.

For some of these athletes, CX season started in July with some running and plyometrics. For some athletes with goals late in the season (December- January) CX will start with a transition period with the best form beginning around Thanksgiving. However, each SE client will agree on this statement: CX specific training is hard!

CX is a perfect example of a sport that is decided by outliers. So just what is this picture below? It's a multi- file range... okay, let's just say we're using it to compare pedal forces with pedal velocity. Green is a TT (Nationals in Bend, OR), Red is a criterium stage in the Nature Valley Grand Prix, and Yellow is a CX race; all from the same athlete. You'll note that as a whole, the majority of the points are in the vicinity of the green. However, if you look at how the red (criterium) and yellow (CX race) differ you'll notice that while both are difficult events, they are undoubtedly difficult in different ways. That multitude of yellow points in the upper left of the graph are the data points that decide races. Information like this helps us to understand what the sport specific demands to CX are, and how best to tailor a training program to the demands of this discipline.

In the meantime, here is a brief video of Joe Schmalz as he begins his 2010 CX season preparation.

Join Source Endurance as we host our Cyclo-cross clinic this coming Saturday, September 11.

Source E and KCCX/ Verge pb Challlenge Tires presents a CX Clinic

2010-08-17T09:00:00.000-07:00

SourceE KCCX CX Clinic

Benefits of a Mid-Season Break, Part 3:The Spoils

2010-08-11T05:25:00.000-07:00

Before we get into the fun stuff below, let's talk about managing the mid-season break. There are two types of conditions that every break will meet. Planned and unplanned. Examples of each (let's see if you can figure them out): vacation, illness, business trips, injury... easy right.

The majority of clients Source Endurance works with have 2-3 peaks per season and depending on the individual, everyone needs some sort of break. The mid season break can come in many forms; complete off the bike, some easy riding, unstructured training or any combination. The goal of the break is to rest, re-motivate and prepare for that next peak on the horizon.

Here are a couple of Source Endurance Clients that have taken the mid-season break, in both of the aforementioned conditions.

Athlete 1: Unplanned. Injury.
This athlete was hot on the heels of some of the best form of his life. Just peaked, was looking forward to a couple more races, then onto a bit of respite from the High Intensity (1,2,3) Training he had been executing to perfection when it happened..... A bad crash (circled) left him with some nasty road rash and a fair number of stitches along with a number of other maladies which left him off the bike for 9 days, more than he's ever been out of commission in his adult life.

The most important thing to convey to Athlete 1 is that now, getting well became the #1 priority. He likes to ride and train as cycling helps keep him sane, and happy. These injuries are definitely degrading his quality of life and must be addressed before any recoup of fitness can be had.

There was and always will be a detraining effect when one is on injured reserve for that much time. Studies show that doing nothing can quickly lead to loss of fitness. However, it's important to remember that detraining is relative to some degree. His form was not gained in 9 days and thus he will not lose it all in 9 days.

Following his return to training, a slow build was necessary to ensure that there were no aggravation of the injuries. Once he got into his normal rhythm again, the trajectory was impressive. Within one training cycle he was at the same level that took him all of 2010 to achieve. Equally as important is that now he is rested, refreshed and ready to do some hard work again. This combination will allow him to finish out his road season strong at the state road championships in October.

Athlete 2: Vacation in Italy May 24-June 2
Athlete 2 has had a very good 14 months on the bike. He earned his upgrade at Superweek in 2009 and now is placed on his team's Elite squad. With this comes some elevated expectations. No longer is it simply okay to "just finish" a race. He is expected to contribute in some way at every team race he competes in. A tall order for a newly upgraded athlete. However, he took the challenge head on and made some great strides in 2010.

Athlete 2 is also very good about knowing his own limitations as well as keeping his life in balance. To this end, he understands that if he does not take some down time, his motivation wanes and he will be effectively done for the season. The best remedy: Vacation in Italy, of course!

Athlete 2 finished off his successful spring campaign, then jet set himself to Europe for some well deserved R and R. When he came back, he found that all the remaining races were indeed "big deal" events. Time to get back to work.

We've been concentrating on more short term powers with a focus on repeatability since his return to competition. The numbers don't lie. There has been improvement across the board. Athlete 2 has shown improvement relative to his pre-vacation form in every major energy system across the board. This should bode well for him and his team as the season progresses into the final stages of the 2010 road season.

Benefits of a Mid- Season Break, Part 2.

2010-08-05T06:00:00.000-07:00

As the season progresses, many athletes see a degrading performance, both absolute and relative. Indeed the athlete has begun to burn up. The reasons for this are many and no one-reason is an answer that can be easily remedied. However, the underlying root of the issue is that the fitness trajectory at the onset of training was unsustainable in the long term, and fatigue is now beginning to show on the athlete. Typically, the textbook case for this is the athletes who transition, in one day, from "base miles" in the the spring, to doing every event and group ride on a week in, week out basis. The athlete goes from little or no intensity to 3-5 high intensity workouts per week. Then, they find themselves out of gas in July, limping through August and totally packing in their 4 month road season before Labor Day reciting, "back in my day," and vowing to do next year even better.

The most saddening part of this formula is that the best form of the season was never realized. Usually 4-8 days into the "off-season" the athlete is great again and would probably be on great form with just a little work. A similar scenario plays out for those who are targeting a two peak season. Following that first peak, it is common for an athlete to be both mentally and physically drained. They have been working hard and keeping focus on the task and now with no new shining peak on the horizon, the question of "why?" comes to mind. Don't fight it. Take some time to relax and rest. The internal pressure of those "A" races should not be marginalized. They are hard and they do come with a cost.

Also, in order to properly prepare for that first peak, it is not uncommon for the athlete to have undertaken that unsustainable fitness trajectory. Even still, improvements are quick and fitness is good. However, the cost that comes with the steep trajectory is that a break must happen to continue the improvement. Failure to do this will result in constantly degrading powers and performance which can have disastrous effects and tend to push an athlete towards one extreme or the other. On one hand the athlete may decide that in order to gain fitness, more training must be completed, which will exacerbate the problem and result in a complete breakdown (typically illness). Heading the other direction we've already discussed, quitting the season. Both of these methods deprive the athlete of the opportunity to do something truly special late in the season, like hitting new peak powers, setting new PRs, and putting a notch in the "W" column.

What's the difference between Burning Up and Over Training:
Difference between burning up (overreaching) and over-training is this: When riders burn up, they mostly just need to rest for a few days. It's nearly impossible for an athlete who is 'riding by feel' to over-train. This is because they typically succumb to burn out, illness, or injury, and simply stop training all together. Over-training is not something that happens in such a short time as a month or two, but rather is something that occurs in a more chronic state. If you take 3-4 days off and you feel rested, you are not over-trained but burned up/ over-reached.

In the final piece, we'll look at how to manage a mid season break and look at a couple of athletes that have benefited from the break already in 2010.

Benefits of a Mid- Season Break, part 1

2010-08-03T07:11:00.000-07:00

Ahhh, the mid-season break. Where the rider can sit back, relax, digest the previous months of training and prepare for that second peak. The benefits of a mid-season break can be many and depending on your goals, a break may be the only thing that can save or preserve your season. The mid season break does a few things: prevents burn out, prevents burning up, and provides for a transition between disciplines. In the next posts, we'll look at these and show how the break can be a good thing.

Burn out. It's that desire to do absolutely nothing. You know that feeling, when you want to go ride, but you don't want to ride hard. Or when you just want to sit at the coffee shop an extra hour then head home. Burn out comes most often for the ones that see marked improvement early in the season, in part because they are driven to succeed more by the improvement they've seen already seen; and partly because they have immense internal pressure on themselves to continue to see success. Then, as soon as the improvement stops, BAM! It all comes crashing down and their season is, for all intents and purposes, over. Burn out is as much to blame for the loss of star athletes from sport as injuries, school or anything else and it must be managed.

Your mid season break should put your training on a secondary focus for a while. Sure, go train some but not very long and only if you want to. However, it's a great time for a vacation! The mountains, the beach, or even just chill-axing at home on your stay-cation. Or, even.... re-re modeling your basement (sorry Tom)! The goal is to step away and come back with a refreshed mental state. You'll need it as late season peaks are tough. No longer can you rely on the winter and reduced daylight hours to slow your competition. Everyone is going fast and you'll need to step it up to see success late in the season. Look around at those that succeed in August every year, is it coincidence that they probably started late or took some time off? Doubtful.

The length of the season is daunting. For those in the south, it starts in late January and runs through October. For those north of the Mason Dixon line, it begins in April and runs through Cross Nationals in December. Either way, that's a LONG time to be on form. Maintaining that desire to succeed for an entire macro-cycle is very difficult. Something as simple as inter-cycle rests help to keep the athlete mentally sharp. Keeping your goals and expectations in line with your fitness is essential to managing that mental drive. Like physical form, that mental drive is a finite resource and must be managed.

Sports Drink? What Sports Drink? by: John Hobbs, MEd.

2010-07-25T22:16:00.001-07:00

It seems that there are as many combinations for sports drink preferences as there are wheel and bike frame combinations. Athletes range their choices from science driven recommendations to one incident I remember where a bonking friend downed a ham-steak mid ride claiming bonking was all in his head. Needless to say, I pulled all the way home. My interests are aroused whenever I see an article looking at macro-nutrients during activity and looking at performance. The research article by Breen, Tipton, and Jeukundrup entitled “No effect of carbohydrate-protein on cycling performance and indices of recovery” was no different and looked at a variety of markers coming from a single study. A large product line already exists for carbohydrate sports drinks as the benefit of is well accepted in science and in sport. Carbohydrate and protein “recovery” mixtures also have a market place foothold, although these do not have the depth or the history of empirical data. Ratios of the two nutrients as well as the types need further studies before an ideal recommendation can be made. So taking this one step farther, researchers are looking at the effects of these supplements when ingested during exercise. As the researcher of the article state, there is already some data showing conflicting results. This could be from differences in methodology, looser or tighter controls, differences in the types of measurements made, or just differences in the findings that have not been figured out yet.

The methods used by Breen, Tipton, and Jeukundrup appear to mimic a real world application very closely while maintaining laboratory controls. Twelve cyclists were utilized, a respectable number of volunteers when compared to similar studies, with each athlete being subjects under both conditions. All of the athletes underwent two hours of cycling at a work rate based on measurements from each cyclist before completing a time trial based on the predicted amount of work completed in an hour TT. Most athletes don’t warm up for two hours before an event. The purpose of this exercise time was likely to deplete the athletes without driving them to fatigue before the end of the lab session, a difficult task to do since science has yet to determine exact causes of fatigue and all of their roles. The athletes were supplied either a carbohydrate or carbohydrate and protein mixture, depending on the trial they were completing, while riding. Then the hour long time trial based, on the amount of energy used, was completed.

Several forms of data were extracted from this one group. First, the power outputs measured at various points of the time trial were not significantly different nor were the times to completion. So a direct measurement of performance indicated no benefit of the protein addition. Additionally, an isometric strength test post exercise failed to show any difference on recovery from either drink. To look at muscle damage, the researchers used levels reported soreness and levels of an enzyme called creatine kinase in the blood. The idea behind using this enzyme is fairly simple. It is normally located inside the muscles. If there is muscle damage, the enzyme is released out of the damage section in to the blood. A similar test is used to check for a heart attack. This also revealed no benefit of either drink.

One point to be discussed is the supplement ratios. The drinks had 65grams/hour of carbohydrate with the mixed drink having an additional 19grams/hour of protein. This equates to 260 and 336 calories per hour, respectively. With a study design like this, a couple of questions would have been raised depending on the results. If a difference would have been seen, the question would have remained if the was the cause of the increase, or was it just the fact that there were more calories in the mixed drink. In this case where no difference was seen, we can have questions at the deeper level. Did the 260 calories maximize the benefit that can be seen in sports drinks due to absorption, hormones, or other causes? Or would a calorically equivalent beverage have proved to be more or less beneficial? Additionally, would a control trial with no caloric intake have had similar results indicating that carbohydrate substrate was not the limiter in the testing protocol? With these questions, however, we have to see the practicality of these studies utilizing this many treatment groups. The more conditions there are, the more time required, higher drop-out rate, increased cost, and facilities for the study. The researchers hit on some of these points during their discussion. However, it has to be remembered that the research in this field is still relatively young with varying results. A slight modification on the conditions may cause a difference. The athletes in this study rode for three hours. What happens during 100+ mile races where the pace is fluctuating over climbs and chasing breaks? Changes in hormones occur depending on the intensity and duration. One aspect not touched on is the fact that no difference was seen between the two groups meaning that the protein treatment was not shown to hurt performance either. So, if you prefer to drink your “recovery drink” that has some protein in it during the race because you like the taste, left the bottle of sports drink in your car by accident, or any other reason, these data indicate it can’t hurt. With all these questions, it can be asked “what good was all this then?” The article provides several data points to further elaborate on with future research and at least have a larger basis for recommendations to athletes.

Breen, L., Tipton, K., Jeukendrup, A. (2010). No effect of carbohydrate-protein on cycling performance and indices of fatigue. Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, 42 (46), 1140-1148.

Tour of Lawrence Street Sprints Video

2010-07-06T18:32:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Keith Walburg for taking the time to record this fun filled evening!

Tour of Lawrence, Street Sprints from Keith Walberg on Vimeo.

New Thoughts of Training/ Racing in Heat, a practical approach

2010-07-02T14:51:00.000-07:00

As the summer settles in and the mercury routinely climbs towards the top of the thermometer, heat becomes a factor in racing and training. Many people write articles about what happens and many authors say the normal, "drink water and stay cool." But that doesn't really give the extreme conditions the respect that they deserve. When it feels like you're on the surface of the sun, what are some real and effective steps you can take to help you perform better than those around you in the heat? We'll talk about this and provide some insight on what happens based on the newest research driven in part to prepare athletes to compete in the extreme conditions seen at the Summer Olympic Games in Atlanta, Athens, and Beijing.

The limits of human capacity.
The need to be able to perform in hot and humid conditions is growing with the importance and competitiveness of sport. However, steps should be taken to account for the primary limiting factor to performance in heat: Core Temperature. The limit is 104F. As your core approaches this number, the brain becomes more and more focused on shutting down the body to prevent permanent damage. So instead of stubbornly trying to "beat" this number (and failing), efforts should be spent keeping the core temperature below this ceiling.

Physiological Reality of Training and Racing in Heat
The primary fallacy of training in the heat is that many athletes and even coaches assume that because one can not work at the same level for as long, that the Functional Threshold Power (FTP) of the athlete lowers in the middle of the summer. However, upon some critical thought, along with the new and current research, that line of logic while practically true, is not the case physiologically. This means that while your FTP in hot and humid conditions may be "low," normal physiological indicators of Lactate Threshold (note the difference in terms) show that you are, in fact, no longer training hard enough to "bump" your fitness. This becomes painfully obvious when traveling from a hot climate to a cool climate mid- late season as a "de-training" effect can and will occur unless...

From a training perspective, it is important to make adjustments to your training that allow you continue to meet the physiological demands of the sport at all levels and climates. This means that the same intensities and time at intensities are needed but in a manner that will not cause you to overheat.

Heat and Altitude, the Parallels
As we pour over the research here, the parallels begin to surface between heat and altitude:

Similar in that in order to become acclimatized, chronic prolonged exposure must occur. This means, for heat you will need 3 hours or more exposure over 5-12 consecutive days. There's no way around that.

Performance is not improved by racing and training in heat or at altitude. Many associate acclimating to training in the conditions. Just like Live High Train Low (LHTL) is the BEST way to use altitude, living in warm conditions and training in cool conditions is the best way to become accustomed to heat while minimizing the stress that heat places on your body.

Heat and altitude illness become easier to "catch" with each recurrence. Once you overdo it, you're taking a step backwards in your tolerance. Training until you become "too hot to continue" is NOT a good decision.

Heat and altitude lower your performance, albeit in different ways. Altitude is through a lowered partial pressure due to oxygen (pronounced, "less air up high"). Heat lowers performance by making the limiting factor how much core temperature you can tolerate. More power produced = more heat produced. More heat= more core temperature and higher core temperature= lower performance.

Both heat and altitude add physical stress to your body. However, unlike altitude, you can take a multitude of steps to lower and maintain core temperature even in hot conditions.

So as you pin a number or air up your tires, remember that heat and humidity will hurt your performance to some degree and are two forces you absolutely must respect. Have fun and stay safe.

So You Wanna Race With the Pros?

2010-06-21T06:03:00.000-07:00

So what does it take to race with the Pros? How do you improve fitness all season to get to the point where you ride as part of the peloton and not just sit at the back tailgunning? What are some intermediate goals one should strive for on the way to the elite level of cycling in the USA? Those are all questions we've got at SE in one way or another the last few weeks. I'm going to use SE client and member of the Nature Valley Pro Ride team (yes, his websites need updated), Joseph Schmalz and some of his power data to show his progress and how his performance has improved. Okay! Here we go!

4-11-2010: Tillis Park CT; St Louis, MO.

This is Joe's first criterium of the 2010 season. you can see by the ragged speed (blue) that there were lots of accelerations, common in criterium racing. I drew a horizontal line at the 600W mark as that seems to be a good reference for the overall difficulty of the races. 600W is a number that all Cat 1 racers can produce frequently. However, only the best riders can produce it consistently throughout the race. Even then, it is very fitness dependent. Some things to note here: the abundant >600W efforts the first 1/3rd of the race, then during the final moments, the drop in speed and power beginning at 48 minutes of the race, total efforts >600W= 19. Some other numbers for you math whizzes out there:
Efforts per minute until the winning break occurs: 0.68 per minute
Efforts per minute entire race: 0.28
Race Time: 68min
28.9mph avg
1241 kj
120.3 TSS
1.034 IF.

4-25-2010: Tour of Saint Louis; StL, MO

This was Joe's first win of 2010 and day 2 of racing in monsoons! That being said, it apparently didn't effect the number of hard efforts made in the race. The power and speed fluctuate wildly the first 52 minutes until the winning break formed and rode away with Joe in it. A couple weeks ago, that only took 28 minutes, which shows improvement of peloton quality. Also of note that the average power is not particularly "hard" which points to the jumping as being the deciding factor of the race. Towards the end, Joe only had to jump one time in order to shed his break away companions and take the win. Some other numbers for you math whizzes out there:
Total efforts >600W: 28
Efforts per minute until the winning break occurs: 0.58 per minute
Efforts per minute entire race: 0..37
Race Time: 75min
25.7mph avg
1257 kj
118.5 TSS
0.977 IF.

5-31-2010: TX Criterium Champs; Fort Worth, TX.

This race was HOT, HOT, HOT which undoubtedly led to a global decrease in performance of the peloton. Still, it was hard and there were no race winning moves. You'll notice that the the time between jumps was basically consistent all race long. You seen the trend of speed of the peloton creep upwards the last 30 minutes or so indicating that this was indeed a quality field capable of racing all the way to the finish. Still, this race saw an attrition rate of over 50% and appears to be well worthy of the TX State Criterium Championship. Also, you'll see that this was a ~90 minute race which adds to the impressive ride done by Joe and the entire field.
Some other numbers for you math whizzes out there:
Total efforts >600W: 41
Efforts per minute entire race: 0.47
Race Time: 87min
25.9 mph avg
1290kj
104.5 TSS
0.850 IF.

6-12-2010: Tour de Grove Criterium; Saint Louis, MO.

This was an NRC quality field but with the monsoon conditions, it was a race Joe could place well at. There was no "winning break," once again. However, the average power was considerably higher than even the TX CT Champs. This brings the difficulty a notch higher. No longer can you sit in and stay "rested" to make the jumps unless you are truly one of the more fit. With the quality of the peloton elevated because of the professionals in the race, not many riders were able to jump multiple times. However, you don't see that sort of drop off with Joe. Actually, he continues to improve on the number of efforts he can make over 600W (16%). This shows that Joe is improving in overall fitness as well as top end ability. You'll see again, that the number of efforts over 600 do not slow one bit as the race progresses. This was another very difficult race and saw an attrition rate over 50%. Joe placed 6th in this race in what was the longest, slowest, wettest, ugliest field sprint in a long time. A complete "HTFU" race!

Some other numbers for you math whizzes out there:
Total efforts >600W: 49
Efforts per minute entire race: 0.62
Race Time: 78min.
26.9 mph avg
1248kj
133.0 TSS
1.012 IF.

6-18-2010: Nature Valley Grand Prix, Stage "4", Minneapolis, MN.

The Nature Valley Grand Prix is one of the premier stage races in the US and just to be invited to toe the line is an honor. This race is a truly professional race. So.."what's it take to ride with the pros?" If you want to race with the pros, you'll need to be able to jump at >600W at over THREE TIMES the rate of a "hard" amateur race. You need to be able to do so as the pace of the race is blisteringly fast. You MUST be able to do all this while in traffic and having riders on either hip as you lean your bike so far into corners that you begin to question the laws of physics. Oh and for all you aspiring professionals, you'll need to be able to do this for an entire stage race. The speed never let up in this race (slowest lap was 27.9 average!) and the average power "dropped off" after the first 6.5 minutes and showed no respite for the remaining 62minutes. Just look at the dazzling number and frequency of efforts over 600W! They are frequent, numerous and unrelenting. It seems as if the racers never get tired! For Joe, this is a culmination of his training beginning back in those cold dark days of winter when he was training on roads wet from snow melt. His in-season AND off-season work ethic definitely continues to pay dividends!

Total efforts >600W: 113
Efforts per minute entire race: 1.66
Race Time: 68min.
28.9 mph avg
1161kj
103.5 TSS
0.949 IF.

Tad Hughes Custom. From Skeptic to Superfan!

2010-06-15T08:10:00.000-07:00

The fit is an elusive piece of equipment that is not tangible, is not a shiny bit, and will never be coveted by your peers. But it can make a night or day difference in performance, especially late in events. There has been a fair amount of research as well as anecdotal evidence that shows that a fit is a valuable tool that can improve performance, yet many can rationalize why we have not been properly fit, yet. I spent a weekend in Houston a short time ago and stopped by Tad Hughes Custom to see, hear and experience the service from a specialist.

First some background about Tad: Tad has been involved in the industry since he was 14 years old; performing many duties including: rider, high end mechanic, and the Colonago Technical Director for the USA. In time, all this led him towards the art of the bike fit back when it was voodoo being performed by those with some obscure and unknown knowledge. He has worked with pioneers of the craft such as Andy Pruitt, Michael Sylvester, Scott Holtz, and Paul Swift to develop his own program over the course of thousands of clients that encompasses everyone at every level. As a specialist, Tad has taken the fit process to a new paramount, encompassing biomechanics and the influence they have on injury prevention and performance. From my time with Tad, I deduced this logic that drives Tad’s theory: Pain free riders are injury free riders. Injury free riders are faster and have more fun than riders with nagging or acute injuries. The bike must always adapt (sometimes via custom hardware) to fit the rider instead of the rider conforming to the bike.

Tad works with clients of all skill level but his most intriguing challenges are those with limitations outside the norm. Tad takes a thorough biomechanical evaluation of flexibility and structural limitations of every client, recording his findings and keeping them filed in similar fashion as a medical record. This would be especially useful for clients as time progresses to make adaptations for weakness that develop. And it is the best possible way to eductate Junior riders to be aware of his/her limitations and biomechanical parameters.

As a client, I expect that the bike will be made to fit my body including my flat feet (which effect the way pedal forces go through your knees). I expect that adaptations will be made to account for my background and history including injuries and disciplines. Basically, I expect a specialist to so good at what he/ she does, I will not be able to suggest how to improve the service. Those are very high expectations which hard to meet and Tad Hughes Custom invested the time and energy to actively listen to all of my issues, then went on to exceed every expectation.

Immediately, I noticed the difference. To begin with my feet felt… great. The arches were properly supported; a remarkable upgrade from before. Second, my back was straighter and thus more flat, allowing for better aerodynamics. Tad made some other adjustments that enabled me to enter my pedal stroke a few degrees earlier and which made the pedaling motion feel much more complete, improving efficiency. However the most surprising and enexpected sensation was that my bike still felt like my bike. Surprising right?! No awkwardness. My bike. The next day was a 2.5 hour road ride with lots of starting and stopping followed by an 85 mile road race. To my surprise, absolutely zero soreness. I wasn’t even tight. You know the fit is perfect when there are no physical repercussions. In a follow-up meeting a few weeks later, there is still no residual pain or “awkward” feelings.

As a professional in the industry and a formally educated and trained coach, I have an intimate knowledge of athletics, performance and biomechanics. Tad’s knowledge of biomechanics and how they relate to cycling, and the implications they have towards performance are unrivaled. Everything feels superb and I must say, I am impressed.

Barefoot Running. The new craze?

2010-05-29T07:56:00.001-07:00

Here's a great summary of what the new studies are showing. You decide.

Beyond a simple explanation of doping...

2010-05-25T06:49:00.000-07:00

From our friends at:

The Science of Sport: Scientific comment and analysis of sporting performance.

Ross Tucker, PhD and Jonathan Dugas, PhD

Taking an integrated approach and looking beyond the physiology

Too Much of a Good Thing?!

2010-05-12T19:08:00.000-07:00

By: John Hobbs MEd; Source Endurance Senior Consultant

Free radicals and antioxidants seem to be popular buzz words in the health media. Free radicals, also called reactive oxygen species (ROS), have been associated with several negative processes in the body. They can increase cell death without inflammation that would have normally stimulated adaptations (Hoffman-Goetz & Pedersen 2006) with further end results that can include aging and disease conditions (Murphy 2009). Furthermore, if I told you exercise increases the production of ROS, some people would use this as a great excuse to never go to the gym again or at least have the competitive cyclist wondering what kind of damage they did in last weekend’s three hour race.

Why in the world would anybody want these in their body? Well, they may actually do some good. An entire spectrum of chemical receptors turn processes on and off in your body. Some signal that you should have eaten that energy bar in your pocket as you bonk while others signal to repair damage and cause responses to stress. Restow et al (2009) looked at the effects of the naturally occurring increase in ROS with exercise on some of the health benefits associated with training. And making the research more applicable, the ROS were combated with vitamins C and E, two commonly ingested antioxidants. The results showed that the increased insulin sensitivity associated with exercise was decreased with antioxidant treatment. Additionally, individuals who were trained at the beginning of the study and were part of the treatment group showed decreased insulin sensitivity meaning that by this measurement, they had taken steps back in their exercise related health benefits. The possible implications of this are large. As indicated by Restow, this could have a major effect on diabetes prevention and treatment. Additionally, this is just one health benefit being analyzed. Future work may indicate more of the effects of exercise being undermined.

What if health isn’t your main priority? You just want to go fast and win races. Gomez-Cabrera et al (2008) looked at just that. Their work indicated that using vitamin C as an antioxidant may inhibit the training induced increase in mitochondria in skeletal muscle. Mitochondria are essentially the power plants of the muscle creating usable energy from carbohydrates and fats. More mitochondria means less stress on the body and an increase in lactate threshold. This leads to you to going faster and farther. VO2max also increased with training in untreated groups, but the same response was not seen in the Vitamin C groups. Additionally, your body comes with built in mechanisms to deal with the ROS. The researcher’s findings indicate that the supplements may also hinder these natural mechanisms.

The purpose of this is not to encourage you to throw away your multi-vitamins and avoid fruits and vegetables. However it serves as a bit of education and hopefully discourages you from super-loading on vitamin C after your training rides. Also, it puts a bit of perspective on the processes in the body. Many times, some is good and more is bad. And we tend to focus on the bad and do not stop to think that there may be some underlying benefit. Another example would be histamines. Yes, those guys that are associated with your allergies that cause you watery eyes and other problems. So what good can these things do? They are released in response to a wound as part of an inflammation response (Lewis, Heitkemper, Dirksen, O’Brien, & Bucher 2007). The same group of chemicals that can be annoying enough to have people pop anti-histamines in the morning facilitate the early stages of healing your road rash. In the end, your body has ways of naturally responding to and adapting to stress. The trick with training is learning how maximize these natural adaptations and minimize the negative effects.

Gomez-Cabrera, M., Domenech, E., Rogmanoli, M., Arduini, A., Borras, C., Pallardo, F., et al. (2008). Oral administration of vitamin C decreases muscle mitochondrial biogenesis and hamper training induced adaptations in endurance performance. The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 87, 142-149.

Hoffman-Goetz (2006). Exercise and the immune system. ACSM’S Advance Exercise Physiology. Baltimor, MD, Lippincott Williams and Wilkins.

Murphy, M. (2009). How mitochondria produce reactive oxygen species. Biochem Journal, 417, 1-13.

Ristow, M., Zarske, K., Oberbach, K., Kloting, N., Birringer, M., Kiehntopf, M., et al. (2009). Antioxidants prevent health-promoting effects of physical exercise in humans. Proceeding of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 106, 8665-8670.

Athlete 4. Overland Park, KS

2010-04-09T06:03:00.000-07:00

The last installment of our Athlete profiling and progression series. Thanks for reading!

Athlete 4 is finding his time more and more crunched by life. He is married, has a full time job, two 100% active kids, lawn to mow.... He hooked up with Source Endurance to provide some structure to his training and to help him be at his best when it matters. Indeed, he was in 2009.

Athlete 4 finished the 2009 road season on a strong note at the Gateway Cup, then immediately stepped onto his CX bike and began to make some noise, culminating in some impressive rides at US National Championships in Bend, OR.

Athlete 4 is a talented sprinter and has an enormous ability to tolerate acute enormous workloads. Our challenge is to help him utilize his other attributes in order to further compliment his superior short term powers.

To begin his 2010 season, Athlete 4 was greeted with one of the most severe winters in Kansas history. With no chance to 'sneak in' those long rides on the random warm days of winter, the focus on his training was shifted from quantity to quality. His volume was reduced and intensity increased. After all, it's no fun spending ALL your time on the trainer. He was given the flexibility to get outside, even on the coldest of days in order to break the monotony of watching old Tour de France videos.

With the onset of tolerable weather, his volume has gone up, and the difficulty of his training has followed suit. March saw Athlete 4 focusing on exposure to threshold powers with enough training races and group rides to spur some top end development. Indeed, his only race to date was not the overall level of difficulty expected from a long road race with a good quality field. This skews the graphs below a bit as Mean Maximal powers are typically race driven.

Athlete 4 has been able to use his power meter in order to become "race ready" in the midst of a bare early season Mid-West calendar. We have taken his peak powers along with his recent race data (newly analyzed) and built a schedule for him that should have him ready to race in his upcoming events. Despite not "training" his top end, Athlete 4's short term powers have already eclipsed what he was able to accomplish in March 2009. This reinforces the advantages of having years of data to draw from because we know what he should be doing for this time of year.

Cumulative Powers: March 2009

Cumulative Powers: March 2010

Mean Maximal Powers: March 2009 (dotted) vs. March 2010 (solid)

Athlete 3: Austin, TX

2010-04-08T06:03:00.000-07:00

There will be some clues as to who each profiled athlete is. Feel free to post a reply and guess. Each athlete knows who they are and are welcome to post it if they like. Happy reading!

Athlete 3 came to Source Endurance following four years of Triathlon and dabbling in other sports. He had previously been an elite racer and has international racing experience. His injuries have kept him from being competitive in the past and now he wanted back in the game. Athlete 3 also realized that lately the bar has been raised for cycling in central Texas and guidance would be needed to be successful at this level once again. His 2009 goal was simple, "use 2009 to return to a competitive level in the elite field." After a successful 2009, he turned his attention to cyclo-cross in order to give himself a bump in the top end that he could use in 2010.

This year Athlete 3 strives to once again be a protagonist in some central Texas races by continuing to improve fitness and racing with better tactical awareness as well as being more pro-active late in the events. Athlete 3 states that the frequent accelerations needed to excel in technical criterium races is also a weakness.

Athlete 3 balances all this training with his profession as a software engineer, wife, 2 children (one baby), a new home and troublesome swimming pool.

By examining Athlete 3's training and racing history, we were able to see the deficiency in his short, sharp accelerations. To address this, Athlete 3 did some things that many road racers never think of. First, he did some CX races. The one hour of hard riding every couple of weeks enabled him to improve his top over the off-season and he began the 2010 road season with a better top end than he ever had in 2009. Also, we focused on his VO2 max early in the season in order to help him tolerate the multiple maximal efforts in each race required at the elite level. The results were better than expected.

March 2009 Cumulative Power Distribution

March 2010 Cumulative Power Distribution

Mean Maximal Powers: March 2009 (dotted) vs. March 2010 (solid)

Athlete 2: Lawrence, KS

2010-04-07T06:03:00.000-07:00

There will be some clues as to who each profiled athlete is. Feel free to post a reply and guess. Each athlete knows who they are and are welcome to post it if they like. Happy reading!

Athlete 2 is a younger rider who has grown in his ability and experience at an astounding rate over the last 3 years. Improving is not a matter of "if" but "how" and "how fast." Athlete 2's strengths are self-rated as, "feeling a race and knowing when the defining moments are coming." He can sprint in groups and he can create and drive breaks. His liability, as self-reported, and supported by his power files, rests in his ability to close out long races.

This is where his training has been focused the last 2-3 training cycles. With the help of SE, he's been taking on the high volume training targeted at forcing aerobic development with threshold work occurring after a considerable workload has been accomplished. Athlete 2 is also furthering the stimulus of this volume training by stacking multiple days consecutively in a manner that is challenging, yet allows him to recover given one or two days of easy rides. This training is meant to mimic the high work demands needed for the late selections in road races as well as the later stages of stage racing.

We don't have a lot of racing data from Athlete 2 in March of 2009 (hence the low short-term powers), but we do have a good deal of training and training race data to compare. The results are an across the board increase in aerobic power. It will be interesting to see where his abilities peak as there are no signs of his current upward trajectory slowing.

Mean Maximal Powers: March 2009 (dotted) vs. March 2010 (solid)

Athlete 1: Houston, TX

2010-04-06T06:03:00.000-07:00

There will be some clues as to who each profiled athlete is. Feel free to post a reply and guess. Each athlete knows who they are and are welcome to post it if they like. Happy reading!

Athlete 1 is a veteran racer who came to Source Endurance on the heels of a less than stellar 2008 season. He was looking for some improvement both objectively and subjectively and has he shown it!

Following his 2009 season Athlete 1 discussed his 2010 goals and outcomes to be addressed. His short term/ off-season goals were to continue to build and keep the workouts dynamic enough where he was still having fun. For his spring campaign, he had a handful of early target events that nearly mirrored 2009. Also, he wanted to be able to continue to capitalize on difficult, epic races and his affinity for racing well out of small groups. Athlete 1 expressed a need to improve on his late race powers as well as Time Trialing (applied to stage racing, as part of multiple stage days) and the ability to recover following systematic attacking.

Athlete 1 battles the same limiting factor that many Source E clients deal with: Time. His profession and family require a considerable investment of time and thus the "ride all day everyday" theme is not practical.

So we get to work......
The first thing we did was to analyze Athlete 1's power files to substantiate his claims, then to set out to correct them. What we found was that in the early "epic" races, Athlete 1 was in need of more kilojoule (pronounced, "aerobic work") capacity for the long road races as well as exposure to threshold+ efforts late in the event. We took some things differently with the training including more focus on efforts that will emulate the 2009 events as well as adding some larger volume when his schedule would allow. The results....

Keep in mind the scale of the graphs as shown by the horizontal lines. Even though in 2009, Athlete 1 did a fair bit of HIT, the volume was no where near what was seen in 2010. Indeed, we did push the envelope of aerobic development and the results are showing as he sets himself up for his first "A" race of the year.

Cumulative March 2009 Power/ Time

Cumulative March 2010 Power/ Time

Mean Maximal Powers: March 2009 (dotted) vs. March 2010 (solid)

As a side note: Athlete 1 did enjoy a substantial weight loss over the winter. That, along with his power increase sets the stage for the story of a veteran racer in the midst of a rebirth is being written as we speak!

Spring un- Fitness?

2010-04-05T10:26:00.001-07:00

Spring. “The season of growth.”

In nature this means an explosion of life as the woods come alive after a long winter of sleep. The birds come back after their vacations south and the snow melts. Finally. However, concerning athletic performance, the foundation of spring started long ago…..

It is easily evident to distinguish who put in the hard work over the offseason to keep themselves on track, and who is painfully behind the curve in meeting their performance goals.

The athlete is bombarded everyday with feedback pertaining to his/her performance, whether in the form of objective or subjective indicators. Objectively, the power meter tells all and does not lie, nor does it sugar coat. Those hard numbers are instrumental in returning to peak fitness in time for your season goals. Subjective ability is what the athlete sees and feels in competition and is derived from athlete comments and from the scheduled consults. How is the athlete feeling? Is the fitness there? Where does it lack? What needs immediate correction?

Source E uses both of these measures as key tools to tailor a path towards peak fitness starting in the offseason. Over time we modify training, making course corrections, based on both avenues of input to keep each athlete on course both absolutely and relative to his/ her peers.

We’re starting to get some meaningful data from 2010’s early events as well as training. Some of the clients Source Endurance has multiple years’ worth of training and can track progression over time. The results are astounding!

Over the next 3 days, Source Endurance is going to examine one different client per day (if they would like, they can identify themselves), each with similar goals from the previous year. These clients all have data from previous season(s) and viewing the progression is a wonderfully fulfilling thing. Stay tuned!

SE riders start to hit stride!

2010-04-01T22:22:00.000-07:00

Driveway. Austin, TX. April 1.
Men Elite: Colton Jarisch 3rd.
Men 3/4: Jaime Reyna 15th.

NWA Classic. Fayetteville, AR. March 28.
Men P,1,2: Shadd Smith 3rd, Joseph Schmalz 4th

Jerry Bueno Upgrades!

2010-03-27T06:03:00.000-07:00

The Fayetteville Stage Race was epic in many ways. During this hard fought weekend, Jerry Bueno gathered enough points to earn his Category 3 upgrade. Congratulations to Jerry!

SE Athlete Colton Jarisch featured: "Local bike racers like racing community, competition"

2010-03-25T16:36:00.001-07:00

Local bike racers like racing community, competition

Posted using ShareThis

SE Clients Grit Their Teeth on an Epic Weekend!

2010-03-24T06:00:00.000-07:00

Fisk Knob Time Trial March 21. Grand Rapids, MI
Men Open: Tom Burke, 2nd. 1st Amateur!

Fayetteville Stage Race March 21-22. Fayetteville, TX

Stage 1, RR
Men 35+: Jerry Bueno, 1st!
Men 5: Phillip Luce, 5th
Men P,1: Colton Jarisch, 12th
Brandon Cowart, 15th
Men 3: Andrew Ennis, 14

Stage 2, TT
Men 5: Phillip Luce, 3rd
Men 3: Andrew Ennis, 14th
Men P,1: Colton Jarisch, 13th

Stage 3, RR
Men 3: Andrew Ennis, 1st!
Men 3: Brian Darby, 2nd!
Men 35+: Jerry Bueno, 4th.
Men 5: Phillip Luce, 6th

GC
Men 35+: Jerry Bueno, 4th.
Men 5: Phillip Luce, 4th
Men P,1: Brandon Cowart, 12th.

The Driveway Criterium Austin, TX. March 18.
Men P,1,2,3: Jed Rogers, 12th.

Tuesday Night Worlds Kansas City, KS
March 16: Shadd Smith, 1st!

March 23: Shadd Smith, 2nd

Colton Jarisch Upgrades to Category 1

2010-03-23T10:03:00.000-07:00

Following a brilliant early season campaign, Colton has earned his category 1 upgrade. Keep your eye on good things from him and congratulations to Colton!

It's a Crying Shame....

2010-03-21T11:34:00.000-07:00

I'm a KU fan, 100%. They didn't deserve to win and this is a beautifully written, "tough" article. Remember that no matter how good you are, on any given day, someone is always better. Go hard or go home.

It's a Crying Shame...

It's a crying shame Kansas didn't want it sooner

By Gregg Doyel
CBSSports.com National Columnist

OKLAHOMA CITY -- Better late than never, Kansas wanted this game. Time had run out, sadly. Ninth-seeded Northern Iowa had just beaten the No. 1 seed Jayhawks -- the No. 1 overall seed Jayhawks -- in the second round, a 69-67 upset Saturday night that will rank among the biggest shockers in NCAA tournament history.
And Kansas wanted it. Finally.

The clock hit zero, the buzzer sounded, the Northern Iowa and Kansas State fans in attendance at the Ford Center went bonkers, and right then and there, it occurred to the Jayhawks that they really wanted to win this game.

Senior guard Sherron Collins walked toward the Kansas bench to be near someone, anyone, who might feel his pain, and finding nobody to hug, he simply collapsed in a heap in front of coach Bill Self's empty chair. Sophomore forward Marcus Morris was on his hands and knees. So was his twin brother, Markieff Morris.

Fifteen minutes later, when the Kansas locker room opened its doors to the media, the Jayhawks were still crying. Literally, bawling. All of them. I've never seen anything like it, and I've seen devastated college locker rooms -- after losses in the Final Four, the national championship game -- every year since 1998.

The Morris twins were crying into towels. So were Tyshawn Taylor and Xavier Henry. Brady Morningstar was bawling loudly, completely broken by this loss. It was a shocking sight for two reasons.

One, like I said, I've never seen a locker room this distraught.

Two, Kansas didn't play like the game had mattered this much. Not until it was late. Not until it was too late, obviously.

I'll tell you when it kicked in for Kansas, the desire to win, the realization that losing might actually, you know, hurt: With less than three minutes left, when Self stopped yelling and started coaching, and had his players cover the entire court as if their season depended on it. Which it did. From that moment on, it was obvious which team was the No. 1 overall Goliath, and which team was the ninth-seeded David from the Missouri Valley Conference.

Honestly, it was uncomfortable to watch the final three minutes. Uncomfortable because it wasn't fair, Kansas being so much bigger, stronger and quicker than Northern Iowa. It was like watching a ninth-grader beat up a second-grader. It was that much of a physical mismatch.

And it was uncomfortable because, as those final three minutes unfolded, it crystallized Kansas' apathy over the previous 37 minutes.

Kansas had wanted to win from the opening tap, sure. Sort of like, when it's dinner time, you want to eat. Are you hungry? Maybe, maybe not. But it's 6 p.m., and you eat at 6, so you head for the table. Same with Kansas for those first 37 minutes. This was a game, and athletes prefer winning to losing, so Kansas wanted to win.

But the Jayhawks didn't need to win until they trailed 59-54 with 2 minutes, 58 seconds left. They weren't starving until those final three minutes. Northern Iowa, meanwhile, chased down this game from the opening tap like it was the Panthers' first meal in weeks. I'm not talking about shots going into the basket, though Northern Iowa had plenty of those. Ali Farokhmanesh made a trio of 3-pointers in the first half, no surprise considering he was the final-second hero of the Panthers' opening-round victory against UNLV. Center Jordan Eglseder made two 3-pointers in the first half, a shock considering he had made just one 3-pointer all season.

It was more than made shots. It was rebounds. Both teams had 16 in the first half, and again, you had to watch those last three minutes to realize just how much smaller, slower and weaker Northern Iowa was. In the second half Kansas outrebounded the Panthers by eight, but by then the Jayhawks trailed by 12 points.

Kansas' low point might have come with 14 minutes left when a Northern Iowa 3-pointer was tapped all the way into the backcourt, and Markieff Morris literally stopped chasing the ball. He figured it was a backcourt violation, never mind that Northern Iowa was still playing. Chasing everyone else would have required desire, and Morris wasn't about to show that, and so the Panthers played the rest of that possession like a power play in hockey, five on four -- and scored two points.

Final margin of victory? Two points.

But it was more than made shots or rebounds or even hustle at halfcourt. It was grit. The Panthers chased Kansas around the floor like Kansas had taken their lunch money. Kansas was bigger, stronger and faster, as I've said, but Northern Iowa was pissed. It wanted that money back. Kansas was nonchalant, aloof. If this was a baseball game, through 37 minutes every Northern Iowa player would have had dirt on his chest and knees. Kansas' uniforms would have been immaculate.

Am I being clear here? Kansas forced just four turnovers in the first half, and that's not even technically true. Northern Iowa had four turnovers in the half. That much is true. But Kansas forced only one of them. The others were offensive fouls or unforced, sloppy UNI mistakes.

That's how the second half unfolded, too. Kansas forced two turnovers in the first 17 minutes of the second half. Do the math there: In 37 minutes, Northern Iowa committed just six turnovers. That's almost impossible to do, especially against a team with more size, speed and strength. But anything's possible when that bigger, stronger, faster team doesn't have the heart. And Kansas, until three minutes were left, didn't have it. Just wasn't Kansas' day in the ol' ticker department.

In those final three minutes, though, Kansas made like the Grinch. Its heart grew two sizes after Self called for the full-court press, and Kansas just about chased Northern Iowa into oblivion.

The Panthers probably would have folded all the way under the pressure were it not for Farokhmanesh, who's as gutty as any player in the field. He had missed six straight 3-pointers when he found himself alone on the 3-point arc with 35 seconds left and a 63-62 lead.

It was early in the shot clock, so the smart basketball play would have been to pull the ball out, run off some more clock and shoot with about 10 seconds left in the game -- but screw it. Where's the fun in that? Farokhmanesh didn't punt. He went for it. He fired up the 3-pointer, and it went down, and this game was basically over.

When it was finished, Northern Iowa had scored more points off turnovers than Kansas. Northern Iowa had scored more points off the offensive glass. More points in transition. More points not just on the scoreboard, but more points in every way that measures effort.

Kansas led just once. It was 2-0. Other than the opening score of 0-0, this game was never even tied.
And you're going to cry after the game, Kansas? Don't bother. Too late. Nobody wants to hear that crap now.

For more from Gregg Doyel, check him out on Twitter: @greggdoyelcbs

SE Client Results from the weekend

2010-03-15T08:47:00.000-07:00

University Oaks Criterium. San Antonio, TX 3/13

Men 4: Jerry Bueno, 9th
Men 5: Jaime Reyna, 12th

The Chronometro TT. Austin, TX 3/14

Colton Jarisch, Men 19-29 1st! Overall, 3rd
Ahmed King, Men Open- Standard Bike, 13th

Storm Hill Country Challenge Mtb.Comfort, TX 3/14

Men Category 2, 35-39: Jon Toner 4th.

Hell's Kitchen Road Race. Fayetteville, AR 3/14

Men P,1,2: Joseph Schmalz, 4th.

Perry Dam Series #1. Topeka, KS 3/7

Men 55-59: Dean Parker, 2nd.

Spring Fling II. Lawrence, KS 3/6
Women 3/4: Aubree Dock, 1ST!!!
Men 3/4: Mark Cole, 4th
Aubree Dock, 10th.

Spring Fling I. Lawrence, KS 2/27

Men 3/4: Mark Cole, 5th.

SE Athletes Riding Fast at Lago Vista

2010-03-05T05:00:00.000-08:00

Lago Vista I 2/27:

Men 2/3:
Colton Jarisch, 1st!

Men 4:
Jorge Martinez, 2nd

Men 50+:
Paul Hurdlow, 8th

Men 35+, 4/5:
Jerry Bueno, 6th

Lago Vista II 2/28

Men P,1,2:
Brandon Cowart, 11th

Men 2/3:
Colton Jarisch, 7th

Men 35+ 4/5:
Jerry Bueno, 15th.

Tactics Talk moved to New Location

2010-03-02T09:41:00.001-08:00

Greetings Everyone,

This Thursday's workshop venue with Adam Mills will be moving from Coaches Bar & Grill South their other location @ 103rd & Wornall due to a scheduling snafu:

When: 6-8pm
Where: Coach's Bar & Grill @ 414 W. 103rd St. (I-435 & Wornall), 816-941-2286

We will start the presentation at 6:15 to allow for anyone to who missed the update to travel over. The south location will be setup to direct them. Hopefully we can contact most everyone before hand, please forward this update to anyone you contacted.

Plan on being there at 6:00pm or a bit early as we are being provided a number of free appetizers "waiting for us when we arrive" for the trouble of the venue move.

Regards,

Come join us on March 4th!

2010-02-23T07:19:00.000-08:00

Weekend Results from SE Athletes

2010-02-22T06:52:00.000-08:00

Pace Bend Road Race, Austin, TX.

Men Cat 2:
Colton Jarisch, 5th

Men Cat 3:
Brian Darby, 3rd

Master's 35+:
Jerry Bueno, 10th.

Walburg Road Race. Austin, TX

Men Cat 2:
Colton Jarisch, 12th.

Men Cat 3:
Brian Darby, 3rd

Experience is a key to success

2010-02-14T07:23:00.000-08:00

With a flick of the wrist, my ice axe gained purchase as I moved upward. Years of climbing have me comfortable in the vertical world and the route was well within my physical ability. As I stopped to place an ice screw, I began to get nervous. I kept fumbling and almost dropping the screw as the prospect of falling 20 feet with pointy things attached to my feet and in my hands became more and more real. Energy was wasted and a bit of panic had set in. If we were on a route that was at my physical ability, the ending could have been very different.

So what does this have to do with bikes? It illustrates the importance of skills that can seem easy but are very different when applied. A giant screw should be easy to place in ice. But add bulky gloves, 20 pounds of gear, and fatigue to the equation and it gets a little more complicated in the same way riding a straight line gets a bit harder when you’re fighting for a wheel with your nose in the wind after being off the front for 10 miles. Both skills are quickly improved, but many athletes stop worrying about simple tasks once they simply become comfortable. There are many instances where pure fitness can permit some slop, but in the end, energy is still being wasted. Think of a strong cross-wind as gaps form. You struggle to stay with the front group, but slop earlier in the race may have taken a bit too much out of you as the space between your wheel and the next guy gets wider and wider.

Unfortunately the best method to hone these is through experience. This where the infamous group ride comes in. These are great training tools and can fit in to any part of the season, if they are ridden correctly. Contrary to popular belief, you don’t have to hammer your brains out every Saturday morning. In fact, I like my athletes to still do their group rides during their recover blocks. But, they have strict instructions. Similar to the goal of five by 8 min intervals in a workout, the goal is to work as LITTLE as possible. They are to suck wheel the entire time. Letting the wind touch their face is the painful equivalent of a 30 watt drop during an interval. Many athletes who have power profiles beyond what they show in their results find themselves on a steep learning curve as they are forced to try new ways to stay protected. If the purpose of the group ride is a head-banging slug fest that makes grown men cry, hone your skills of riding close when you’re at race speed about to see double. After hard pulls or attacks, figure out how to squeeze a draft off of anybody near you. Get in the habit of always riding like this. When you’re in a race, you’ll automatically find shelter and recover for the next round without a second thought.

While this advice isn’t nearly as interesting as changes in muscle fibers or as beneficial as how to squeeze more out of your intervals, it is free speed. It can help you learn to seek shelter so you’re not cooked halfway through a race or let you conserve enough to let you hang on until the pace eases and you can grab some precious recovery.

John Hobbs, Senior Consultant

jhobbs@source-e.net
http://www.source-e.net
cell 361.815.1100

SE Riders in the Results:

2010-02-12T05:10:00.000-08:00

Kenny Hill Autoworks Criterium at the Driveway, Feb 7

Men P,1,2:
Colton Jarisch, 4th.

Comfort Marathon Mtb:
Men 30-39:
Jon Toner 7th.

Epic One on the Trails

2010-02-10T21:23:00.000-08:00

It's been snowing here. Not enough to put a full stop on everything like in Washington DC, but enough to make everything gross. Roads have been slushy, gravel roads are sloppy mud, but the trails were good.... yesterday. Yup, yesterday was frozen and snowy but great traction. Today, not the case...... We were going to quit early and call it a day, then the voice of reason says, "why not keep going? The bikes are already trashed." So, 2.5 hours of tough riding later it was all over.

It did this a couple days ago:

So Bill, Joe, myself, and Duke rode mountain bikes (Not Duke, he ran) , which got muddy, which froze, which got more muddy.....

and....

Epic! Duke spent the rest of the day in this position, after a bath:

Logan Von Bokel joins the Source Endurance family!

2010-02-07T07:00:00.000-08:00

We're proud to announce the return of Logan VonBokel to the SE family! Logan was with us once before heading off to college in Fort Collins, CO. His demands as an athlete are unique relative to many other athletes in that he's balancing 3 seasons into one calendar year! Collegiate racing with the CSU Rams, road racing with the Green Street Properties Cycling Team and Cyclo-Cross with KCCX. Each team has their own sets of demands and Logan is taking the first step in trusting Source Endurance to help him get there. Welcome back Logan!

Source Endurance looks for quick start to Belterra!

2010-02-05T07:12:00.000-08:00

If you missed out on the first lap prime insanity last weekend at the Tour of New Braunfels... Source Endurance is offering you a second chance to go for gold on lap one at this Sunday's Kenny Hill Autowerks Spring Classic at Driveway Austin. They've kicked in another $50 for the first lap of the P12 Men's race making it $100 to the winner of the first lap. The Cat 3 Men and the 40+ Men will both have $50 primes on the first lap too. And... rumor has it there might be something for the Women's Open race. We'll just have to wait... We'll just have to see...

Tour of New Braunfelds

2010-02-04T08:46:00.000-08:00

Great job on "Opening Day" to every SE athlete! Some are just starting to find form, others are on their way towards the first peak of the season and no one had any expectations for the ToNB. After all, it IS still early!

Saturday Road Race
Men 3:
Andrew Ennis, 5th
Brian Darby, 6th

Men 4:
Jorge Martinez, 8th

Sunday Criterium
Men P,1,2:
Colton Jarisch, 11th.

Men 3:
Andrew Ennis, 7th.

Men 4:
Jorge Martinez, 11th.

High Intensity Training Part 3.

2010-01-31T22:44:00.001-08:00

Greetings and welcome to the final installment of High Intensity Training (HIT). To summarize the previous two editions of this article, in “Part Uno”, I talked about what HIT is and how this training technique is best suited for the “elite” and/ or “chronically trained” athlete when compared to submaximal efforts. During “Part Dos,” I compared and contrasted what distinguishes an “elite athlete” from a “recreational athlete,” and the effects of submaximal training on performance. In “Part Tres” I will discuss what HIT does, how HIT can be used for all types of athletes across many sports, and how HIT can be best used for you- the reader.

Searching for the Causality of Improvement: Central or Peripheral

Central adaptations can be thought of as changes the body makes to deliver more blood to the working muscle. Think of it as analogous to a bigger air intake on a car, the super-charger, the more oxygen you can get to a motor (machine or human) the more fuel it can burn. Blood carries oxygen, so more is more! This is where things get interesting... when measuring abilities of elite athletes, there has been no significant difference in the amount of blood the heart can pump following completion of a HIT training cycle. Also, no other significant difference has been measured from any other blood value. What’s going on here? It gets better…

Upon the failure to find any sort of central focus of influence from training, studies began to look at Peripheral adaptations, or the changes that occur within the muscle cell as a result of HIT. Could there be an improvement in enzyme, or substrate values, which are stimulated during HIT, or are there are other factors at work? The first answer is no. There was no change in any of the enzymes that would signal an improvement in the aerobic energy system. However, multiple researchers have said that more studies are needed to confirm this. On the other hand, sprint training has been shown to have a significant improvement in buffering lactic acid, thus resulting in repeatability of near maximal efforts. However, that should be accompanied by an improvement in the peripheral adaptations, which was not found. Okay so you and I are in the same boat in that we’re both thinking, “Huh? How does this work?” Funny thing about science is that numbers always lead you to the source of all things.

The “numbers” collected for the peripheral studies from the elite athlete are not significant in the world of statistics. However, an elite athlete typically improves a scant 2-4% throughout any one calendar year so the “insignificant changes” may be important after all.

BUT…

The world of athletics dictates that performance is king, so let’s take a look at performance since, ultimately, it matters most. Every single study that incorporated HIT showed a significant improvement in any performance variable measured, including improvement in the 40k Time Trial and time to fatigue at 80%, 100% and 150% of max. That is important. Also, these results are consistent across recreational athletes as well as any endurance-based sport tested thus far. Studies incorporating HIT were performed with running, swimming and cycling showing virtually identical results for all athlete types. “HIT in recreational athletes improves performance to a greater extent that does continuous sub-maximal training alone,” (Laursen, Jenkins. 2002).

For all its promise HIT begs new questions and presents some new problems. The first issue is that as you approach the upper echelons of your ability level, each individual has a specific tolerance for the amount of work he/she can accomplish before becoming physically and/or mentally fatigued. The high intensity of the training requires abundant feedback by the athlete and monitoring by the consultant/coach in order to develop a training regimen that is specific to the individual. The second issue is the principle of rest and recovery. The majority of elite athletes lack the understanding of the importance of rest and recovery when incorporated into training. HIT involves a delicate balance between systematic overload and acute over-reaching that can only be maintained by the feedback from the athlete when coupled with an accomplished consultant/ coach who is trusted.

So the next time you hear, “You do what in the off-season!?” refer the non-believer to this article (Parts Uno- Dos- Tres) and be sure to let them know who your Source is for your Endurance consulting needs. http://source-e.net

SE Athlete Shadd Smith Selected for the 2010 Gary Fisher 29'er Crew!

2010-01-26T09:01:00.000-08:00

Congratulations to Shadd Smith! The Gary Fisher 29'er Crew will have Shadd doing more mountain bike races in 2010. Shadd and I have talked about this and how to incorporate some specific training for these events into his already busy schedule. It's a challenge and one that we are all looking forward to!

To see the Gary Fisher Team, follow this link:

www.29ercrew.com

SE Clients make showing in the final CX races of the season! Jan. 17th.

2010-01-23T00:01:00.000-08:00

TX CX State Championships. Austin, TX.

Men 30-39: Adam Mills, 3rd
Jerry Bueno, 16th (in his CX debut!)

Men Elite: Adam Mills, 7th.

Men 3/4: Jerry Bueno, 21st. (Pictured, late race mechanicals are bad luck!)

Photo by: Matthew Haughey

Epic CX. Kansas City, MO

Men Open: Shadd Smith, 1st! (pictured)

Masters 50+: Dean Parker, 3rd
Single Speed: Bill Anderson, 4th

Photo by Roger Harrison

High Intensity Training, Part Dos!

2010-01-21T03:30:00.000-08:00

Welcome back to the High Intensity Training (HIT) series. Since we last met, we’ve all been tracked for our 2009 goals. Some of us are on track for early goals. Some of us are on track for late season goals, and some of us can see the tracks as we wait for motivation to move us. To summarize “Part Uno” of the HIT series I talked about what HIT is, and how this training technique is best suited for the elite and/ or chronically trained athlete when compared to submaximal efforts. During “Part Dos,” I’m going to compare and contrast: what makes distinguishes an “elite and/ or chronically trained athlete” (from now on, “elite and/ or chronically trained athlete” will be referred to as “elite” since HIT research combines these two groups) from or a “recreational athlete,” and the effects of submaximal training. No matter where your motivation or training status currently is, there’s something to learn here, so lift your coffee, take a sip and keep on reading.

If you’re still reading this, at some level you want to be known as an elite athlete. HIT research combines both “elite and chronically trained athletes” based upon physiological training adaptations (don’t worry, talk of this will be very, very brief) and so, in the interest of the validity of this article, I am going to follow suit. Generally speaking, an elite athlete is one who trains consistently enough to reach the upper echelon of their physical potential. The minimum VO2 max of these lucky individuals typically is better than 60 ml/kg/min. That’s “fit,” but not “Tour de France fit (VO2 max >73 as a domestique).” 60 ml/kg/min would be a “good” regional athlete (Category 3) or an average national level athlete (Category 2). These athletes have trained enough to reap most of the benefits from just riding “lots.” They can make you hurt, but they will not be riding away from a peloton solo.

Recreational athletes are far from removed from a typical, “armchair or television athlete” that decides to jump on a bike for a friendly stroll. They will typically show a VO2 max = 45-55 ml/kg/min, which puts young men (under 30) in the 70th percentile and any women in the +90th percentile of fitness relative to everyone. What differentiates a recreational athlete is just that, recreation. Typically, rigorous training isn’t done often enough to provide a training stimulus necessary to trigger the adaptations needed to reach the upper echelons of fitness. These athletes are usually are strong, but not on the same level as your elite athletes. Still, do not underestimate their abilities. This article does not address the potential for a blistering and explosive sprint, bike handling, long term effects of drafting, strategy, etc.

BUT WAIT! There are disclaimers. The numbers I just mentioned are all based on trends and statistics. That’s right, fun with numbers! Someone who has a VO2 max <55 may still be considered elite and someone with a VO2 max >60 could be considered recreational. This all depends on your genetic disposition towards fitness. Talent plays a big part in all sport in that it is necessary for great success, but not sufficient on its own. However, at the professional and amateur level, hard work is both necessary and sufficient for success.

In order to understand why it is that an elite athlete must train with HIT in order to realize his/ her full physical capacity for performance, we must first understand what physiological improvements the recreational athlete will reap as he/ she begins to consistently train. Concerning the recreational athlete, training adaptations can be categorized into central and peripheral changes.
Please trust that I could ramble on for hours, even days about these changes and exactly why they happen, but I’m much too polite for that. Instead, let’s just say that central changes happen rapidly and permit the body to deliver more blood to the working muscle. Peripheral changes occur more slowly (several weeks to months) and enhance the ability to assimilate oxygen from the blood and consume it inside the muscle cell. As a result, muscle contraction becomes more efficient (at the sub-cellular level) and the cell’s capacity for work increases, thus making you “more fit.”

However, as this submaximal level of training becomes habitual, the improvements mentioned above subside and cease. This is because the elite athlete has, for all practical purposes, maximized his/ her ability to adapt to all submaximal training. Lab tests show that elite athletes already benefit from 3-4 times the oxidative enzyme activity (read, “bigger aerobic engine”), 3 times more capillary density, and a greater percentage of slow twitch muscle mass compared to recreational athletes. It appears that in order for continued performance improvement, a different training stimulus must be presented rather than “simply increasing the volume” (read, “junk miles”).

At the elite level, the athlete is looking for that, “little bit extra.” However, that “little bit extra” is extremely difficult to “find” and it takes an experienced and insightful professional to help reach that “little bit more.” Make no mistake, everyone can benefit from HIT. In the final installment, I’ll discuss the effects of HIT, how it happens, and how to know what to do in order to “find” your best endurance performance. Stay tuned!

Joseph Schmalz Featured for a Second Time at Podium Insight!

2010-01-16T00:01:00.000-08:00

Get the full recap of Joseph's EuroCrossCamp VII experience HERE.

High Intensity Training, Part Uno

2010-01-13T22:19:00.001-08:00

“So…. You want me to do what in the middle of the winter!?” I get that quite frequently when prescribing athletes High Intensity Training (HIT) this time of year. The puzzled look of skepticism creeping across the face of an experienced, already well-trained rider has become an expression I’ve grown accustomed to; and my explanation of “why” has been refined to the point where I feel I can now write it down and refer people to it. So, let’s set the stage for this explanation by first referring any and all non-believers to the following review of literature that covers the 180 studies relevant to HIT. There are other, more recent articles, but this is a good one to get you started.

Laursen, Jenkins. The Scientific Basis for High-Intensity Interval Training. Sports Med 2002; 32(1): 53-73.

Traditionally, it is believed that Long Slow Distance (LSD), or “base building” is the way to train during the offseason. After all, that’s what the Euro-Pros do, right? Well, yes, but….

For starters, Euro-Pros race 110+ days per season (Feb- Oct) which averages out to a race every 2.45 days or 2-3 100+mile road races per week. Also, remember that it’s their job and remember that a typical Euro-Pro doesn’t get to even try and win races most of the time and many of these races are simply glorified training rides, which explains the “race to train” methodology.

However, in the

, every race is a RACE, and most racers only race 20-40 times per year (including those weekly training races). That being the case, it’s important to “train to race” for all of us “mere mortals.” The “train to race” methodology places the onus on consultant or coach to properly examine the demands of each athlete’s race, tailoring his/her training to these demands using a power meter, heart rate monitor, or GPS (pacing). This method is highly effective and helps the athlete to meet his/her goals when executed properly by both the consultant and the athlete.

Newer research is beginning to change the ways athletes train, resulting in them being faster and stronger than their competitors. The basis of this training is as follows:

“Significant improvements in endurance performance is evident following submaximal training in sedentary and recreationally active groups.

However…

Additional submaximal training (volume) in highly trained individuals does not appear to enhance endurance performance. These athletes can achieve endurance performance improvements only through High Intensity Training (HIT). “

The bottom line: an athlete can, and will show tremendous improvement by increasing exposure time to elevated intensities such as Tempo, Steady State, and Lactate Threshold. For these athletes, this IS the base building. With HIT, a training stimulus is being applied using these varying intensities along with progression and periodization. This maximizes the effectiveness of the training and or trained athletes, this IS base building.

As the athlete becomes “elite” and chronically trained, there needs to be more focus on repeatability to of highly intense efforts. From examining race data, it’s fairly obvious that the major selections that ultimately decide the winner all come during highly intense racing. Those who make the selection are not necessarily the ones who can perform the most intense work, but the ones who can perform these efforts numerous times. These “near maximal efforts,” are the efforts that HIT targets. Over the next couple of entries, I’m going to spend some time explaining why, and how that works.

SE Athletes Blast into 2010!

2010-01-11T07:36:00.001-08:00

Grote Prijs CX. Shawnee, KS

Shadd Smith, Men Open: 1st!
Mark Cole, Men 3: 1st!
Aubree Dock, Women 4: 2nd
Dean Parker, Master's 50+: 3rd.
Single Speed: 3rd.

SE Athlete Jon Toner Undefeated in 2010!

2010-01-09T11:06:00.000-08:00

S & S Trails' Excruciation Exam

Jon Toner: Men Open 30-39: 1st Place!

Congratulations to Jon. Way to kick off the 2010 season!

https://www.usacycling.org/results/index.php?permit=2010-68

Did you know?

2010-01-07T00:01:00.000-08:00

I was sent this video about a year ago today and never have deleted it. It's got a fantastic message to tell every one of us. Makes you think about how and what our lives will hold in all aspects of life and sport.

Off Season Training: The History of the Base

2010-01-04T00:01:00.000-08:00

I remember reading a few years ago (the name of the publication escapes me for now, if I remember, I'll be sure to post it) about how the "base" training came to be. Like most training methods that athletes "just do," base training is a dated training technique. However, that doesn't make it obsolete for some. For most of us though, there are better ways to develop your base. A colleague recently wrote an article about how 'base is a waste' which resulted in him getting raked over the coals by those who simply read 'such and such' a book or adhere to the USAC "Coaching handbook" or whatever you want to call it (as a side note, try looking up the references to that book and note the publication date, not so recent and that's for starters). So I'll begin....

Once upon a time, professional athletes weren't so professional as we think of it in the modern sense. Sure, they did compete in the Big Time during the season, but for the off-season, most of them went back to their day jobs. Factory jobs, steel mills, and ranch hands were the norm and even in the big American sports, NFL, NBA, and Major League had to work a second job just to make a living wage. The average salary of an NFL player into the late 1950's was less than $6000 annually. The analog was true for professional cyclists.

During this off season employment, the riders were not expected to maintain much, if any fitness. Working a blue collar job may keep you active and "fit" but it did not keep you at a competition ready form. Making the jump from factory work to professional cyclist over a weekend is the physiological equivalent to driving a fork lift on Friday and racing in the F1 Series on Sunday. Needless to say the riders couldn't make this jump and race effectively at the professional level. They needed some sort of transition period.

The transition came in the form of Long Slow Distance (LSD, base training) which was more a function of necessity to attain performance improvement. These professionals were not capable of racing or riding "hard" over long distances. They had to ride long distances slowly. But why Long Slow Distance? I imagine it had to do with a couple of ideals. First, they just came from an all day factory job to riding and training. In that respect, what else would you be doing all day if you weren't training? In an era of 'more is more' training, and training a LOT was the key to fitness. Note: new studies are showing that world class endurance athletes still need to train a LOT but that's another story. The second was the belief that if you can ride 7 hours slow, then you can ride 4 hours fast. This is somewhat true, but new studies and training methods are debunking this idea as we speak.

That's not to say that LSD doesn't have it's place in professional sports. After a lay-off or the beginning of the season, an athlete may not want or need the mental rigors of high intensity. Indeed, they may not be ready for the sudden jump in stress, which could result in injury (think that first CX race and how sore we all are the next day). Also, given the current state of professional sports where an athlete is a Professional athlete first and foremost, LSD does have it's place in the training macro cycle. In order to stress the aerobic energy system, a training volume of more than 12,000kj per week, for a number of weeks, would be a target. That's a LOT of riding, over 25 hours per week.

The reason this works for modern professional athletes is because sport IS their profession. For most people with other full time professions, that sort of time commitment would result in one or more of following happen: divorce, loss of job, loss of home, house going uncleaned/ unmaintained, groceries not being purchased, you get the idea. 9-12 hours of weekly training time is more realistic for roughly 85% of the clients at Source Endurance. There's just one problem; that's 1/2 of what it takes to do true "base" training the way it needs to be done. That is, to present the body with the stimulus necessary to develop your aerobic base, you would need to ride about twice as much. Which means most of us actually accomplish a solid training block of Short Slow Distance riding. Basically, we 'train' ourselves out of fitness. Is there another way? Of course there is!

In the coming days, I'll be posting a 3 part series about High Intensity Training and how it can be used to help you reach your peak performance.

Cross Out the Old Year!

2010-01-01T22:29:00.000-08:00

Another cold, snowy, muddy, icy cross race...... It seems to be the norm starting in mid-November and continuing until whenever you decide to stop racing cross. It's hard on equipment, clothes, riders and pit crews. KCCX had, what I believe was the best pit crew bar none all season and especially in the late season. Bill, Tom, Dean and everyone else that helped out were absolutely phenomenal! This continued right up through the most recent CX race.

Following CX Nationals in Bend, my bikes were a wreck. Eight races in the above conditions and so many falls that I just stopped counting took their toll. Tom had the bikes up and running to "like new" status on race day. Actually, I didn't even see my bikes that day until the race. How awesome is that?! So, my plan was to use one bike and not trash the other one......

Well, the mud turned to ice, and the ice stayed on the bikes. What that meant is that my A bike was totally iced over and I was slogging along like I was dragging an anchor. Time to change. During the change, two guys who had been closing for some time as I continued to bog down with ice, passed me and made a run for it. I must say, having the pit crew of KCCX and that extra bike made a HUGE difference. It was like being on a brand new bike! All of a sudden I was going 3-4 mph faster. So much fun! I rode by them and was nearly back up to 3rd place when I just ran out of laps. Cross is hard.

After the race, Tom took my bikes AGAIN and will undoubtedly have them back to "like new" condition on race day coming up. The funny thing is... Tom wasn't really planning on working pits that day, just watching and enjoying his off season. Funny how that works out. Tom, thanks so much for all your help this year with KCCX. The team could not have accomplished what we did without you.

Season's Greetings!

2009-12-24T18:41:00.000-08:00

Source Endurance Athlete Joe Schmalz featured on PodiumInsight.com!

2009-12-23T15:51:00.000-08:00

In addition to his headline story in the Lawrence Journal World....

http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2009/dec/16/lawrence-cyclist-race-europe/?sports

Joe is also featured on Podium Insight.com!
http://www.podiuminsight.com/2009/12/22/joseph-schmaltz/

KCCX . Totally Legit!

2009-12-21T21:40:00.000-08:00

Disclaimer: I'm going to forget to mention things. Sorry if I leave you, or your contribution out. As all of us in the house know, everyone was responsible in making this happen.

What does it mean to be treated like a PRO, on a legitimate outfit that is set up for the sole purpose to promote the sport an teach riders the ways of cyclocross?

The 2009-2010 CX season began just prior to Interbike 2008 for director Bill Marshall. He started cementing deals then and procuring sponsorship to enable all this to happen. The result: a setup and infrastructure based on sponsors, donors, and personal relationships that rivals any of the professional outfits in the US.

The van and trailer courtesy of Trek Stores KC

If you were to find our "camp" either in Portland (USGP) or Bend it would like a full working bike shop. 3 racks stuffed full of bikes, 3 pop up tents, Sprinter van, and a trailer. The trailer has and rear quarters act as a changing/ warming room and there's plenty of space to relax. Just stay out of the way because there's always someone warming up or doing last minute race prep. Accompanying this is over a dozen riders and excess of 30 bikes, and about 70 sets of wheels.

The tents are full of KCCX sponsor product. Wheels wrapped in rubber, chic black Scott bikes, Outlaw Earth bags crammed full of Verge clothing. You name it, it was there.

Sure the "stuff" is cool, but what makes the whole thing run? An outfit of this size has to be kept organized and spot on. Enter the true champions of the last 2 weeks.... of the KCCX equipment is maintained by Superman Tom Price. Tom has played an instrumental role by keeping each and every bike up and running with very little help. And he takes everything in such great stride. No matter what "emergency" a rider would have, it would be handled very smoothly and efficiently by Tom. Oh, yeah.... Tom ALSO went from DFL in his 50-54 race to 4th place. Watch the videos on his blog, I counted 1:16 from the final podium spot to him on the first lap!

Shadd Smith dominates the Killer B's! The first of many KCCX podium performances.

So that's Tom, what about our fearless leader? Bill Marshall everyone. He is the reason this whole outfit got rolling and he wore the mantra well. Bill had everything spot on. From the airport pick up to the final packing of the bikes in the trailer and sprinter van. Bill had it DIALED! For example, Saturday, KCCX had a rider in EVERY race all day. So what do we do? Obviously, we relocate the entire "bike shop" operation to the pit for the day. Obviously. It just made sense.

Half of the garage.....

The other half of the garage....

As much as everyone would like to say, "it was totally PRO and looked great" the reason for all this was to allow the riders to be stress free and race their bikes. And race KCCX did. 4 podium spots, 2 guys racing overseas at EuroCrossCamp, and lots of attention. KCCX has a good mix of veterans and Young Guns. The Veterans have done it and can keep the Young Guns from getting too nervous. Also, whenever there's a attitude needing adjustment, it gets taken care of. However, Veterans realize that the focus of the team is the Young Guns and they realize that to succeed, they need to learn from the wealth of knowledge from the former. It's a good mix and one that I'm proud to be part of.

So what's a normal day look like in the KCCX camp?

Night before: Dinner
Bill sits down and lays out the next day's events including who is racing and when (each rider is given a laminated schedule with this information on it). Tom asks everyone what each bike needs done to made "good" again. After getting this long list each night, Tom disappears into the HUGE garage packed with bikes to work his magic and doesn't emerge until every bike is working again.

Next Morning, REALLY early:
Most days, Bill, Tom and Dean were on site at 630am. Yes, that's early. Everyone else sleeps in, but they are there all day, everyday for the first person racing to be fully supported. Imagine that.... The 830am racer gets the SAME support as the 230pm racer. Oh, it gets better, these guys don't take a "lunch break" like the Shimano neutral support did (what? we have 30 guys needing help? eh, let's eat). Oh no, they were at all day like the SRAM guys are when they work races. Tireless.

330pm, usually when the last race starts, anyone in the area helps to pack up the van and trailer. The trailer was secured and locked up while ALL the bikes made the trek back to the house to have Tom work his magic again.

5pm. Bill would call everyone at the house with a 5 minute warning. Be outside to help unload or face the wrath....

7pm. Dinner. Bill actually cooked most nights. Either because he was famished or everyone else was too tired. Not sure but the food was very good and there was lots of it. Repeat the meeting and hit replay and that's a day in the KCCX Camp.

LB and Adam's room. It was a solid yard sale, but we kept it organized.

Lawrence cyclist to race in Europe

2009-12-16T09:25:00.000-08:00

By Allyson Shaw

December 16, 2009

It’s muddy, vicious, fast, tricky, taxing and technical. It’s the NASCAR of cycling — it’s cyclocross. And 19-year-old Joseph Schmalz is heading to Belgium today to compete in Euro Cross Camp.

“When you go to Europe, you’re racing against the best athletes in the world,” Schmalz said. “It’s a whole different atmosphere.”

Cyclocross is set on a closed, one- to two-mile course, and racers try to do the most laps in one hour. Like NASCAR, the racers have a pit crew to clean and service their bikes, sometimes up to six times per race. Cyclists ride on grass, mud and sand, and often have to dismount their bikes, jump over barriers and get right back on.

“It’s a mix of mountain biking and road racing,” Schmalz said. “It’s the hardest discipline within cycling. You only race for an hour, but it’s the toughest thing you’ll do all week.”

Schmalz is one of 18 cyclocrossers across the country selected to participate in Euro Cross Camp. He will race every other day from today through Jan. 4.

Schmalz raced for the first time at 9 years old and pedaled to a first-place finish in the Sunflower State Games 9-under race when his grandfather, Gary McGregor, saw a flier for the race and signed him up. McGregor owns a bike shop in Atchison.

But Schmalz only started cyclocross in 2006 to keep in shape during the offseason. Since then he’s had incredible success in the discipline. He is currently ranked second in the U-23 division and has been placing in the top 20 in pro races.

“How often do you hear a 19-year-old talking like a veteran rider?” said Adam Mills, Schmalz’s trainer and CEO of Source Endurance, a cyclist training company. “Joe has so much talent, I feel kind of obligated to help him be the best he can be.”

Schmalz rides every day, averaging 10 hours a week. The recent Free State High graduate is taking the semester off to train and travel for cyclocross.

Mills said Schmalz’s success was surprising because of his age. “The thing that makes cyclocross difficult is that you must draw on all of your experience,” Mills said. “It’s rare to find young riders as fast as Joe because they don’t have the experience. It takes emotional maturity to be able to handle this. Joe might be 19, but he races like a 28-year-old, mentally.”

The nature of cyclocross means a lot of pedaling, a little bit of running, a little bit of jumping, and a lot of falling. The object, Mills says, is to make mistakes (of which there are many) at points that won’t be detrimental.

“He just doesn’t get frustrated,” Mills said. “The hardest part for most riders is patience. There are not a lot of ways to win, but a lot of ways to lose. You don’t need to punch guys out, you just wait for them to do it themselves. Wait for them to make a mistake. No one ever rides perfect.”

Schmalz said he looks forward to the intense competition in Belgium, and hopes to eventually ride professionally. His next goal is to make it onto the World Championship Team.

“He’d be bored to death on a float trip down a river,” Mills said. “But some people think that’s fun. Joe would rather be riding his bike at 30 mph.”

CX Nationals More Top Results

2009-12-13T09:18:00.001-08:00

Men 50-54: Tom Price 4th!

Men 35-39: Shadd Smith, 10th!

Congrats to Tom and Shadd!

2009 CX Nationals, Day 1 Results... WOW!

2009-12-11T16:30:00.000-08:00

Of course, it's the infamous curse.... The snow and ice curse. Oh well, let's get to racing!

Men 20-29 "B" race. Connor Cartland. Sitting in 3rd place late in the race when a crash K-O'd his bike. Tough break! So close...

Men's 30-39 "B" race. 100-ish starters, random call up. Shadd Smith, 2nd to last row (11th row) to 1st place! Congrats to Shadd Smith!

Men 40+ "B" race. 167 starters, random call up. Tom Price, last row call up to 3rd place! Congratulations to Tom!

Dean Parker was also sitting in position for a top 20 in the 55-59 National Championship race when a crash K-O'd his bike. Oh MAN! Dean ran 1/3 of a lap, changed bikes and rode from 45th back up to 29th in the snow and ice. Fantastic ride for Dean, even with the unfortunate luck.

Another Week, More Top Results For SE Athletes

2009-12-08T00:19:00.000-08:00

USGP Portland, Day 2.

Tom Price, Masters 45+: 1st! Overall: 2nd.

Dean Parker, Masters 55+: 1st!

USGP Portland, Day 1.

Tom Price, Masters 45+: 2nd

Dean Parker, Masters 55+: 2nd

Michigan CX Championships
Tom Burke, Men Open: 4th

Missouri CX Champs
Scott Fleming, Masters 45+: 3rd

Boss CX
Scott Fleming, Masters 45+: 2nd
Aubree Dock, Women 4: 3rd.

Stretching. Believer or Non- Believer....

2009-12-04T06:01:00.000-08:00

November 25, 2009, 12:01 am

Phys Ed: How Necessary Is Stretching?

By GRETCHEN REYNOLDS

Max Oppenheim/Getty Images

For research published earlier this year, physiologists at Nebraska Wesleyan University had distance-running members of the school’s track and field team sit on the ground, legs stretched before them, feet pressed firmly up against a box; then the runners, both men and women, bent forward, reaching as far as they could past their toes. This is the classic sit-and-reach test, a well-established measurement of hamstring flexibility. The runners, as a group, didn’t have exceptional elasticity, although this varied from person to person.

Overall, the women were more supple, as might have been expected. Far more telling was the correlation between the various runners’ tight or loose hamstring muscles and their running economy, a measure of how much oxygen they used while striding. Economy is often cited as one of the factors that divide great runners from merely fast ones. Kenyan distance runners, for instance, have been found to be significantly more economical in their running than comparable Western elites.
When the Nebraska Wesleyan researchers compared the runners’ sit-and-reach scores to the measurements of their economy, which had been garnered from a treadmill test, they found that, across the board, the tightest runners were the most economical. This was true throughout the groups and within the genders. The inflexible men were more economical than the women, and for both men and women, those with the tightest hamstrings had the best running economy. They also typically had the fastest 10-kilometer race times. Probably, the researchers concluded, tighter muscles allow “for greater elastic energy storage and use” during each stride. Inflexibility, in other words, seems to make running easier.
For years, flexibility has been widely considered a cornerstone of health and fitness. Many of us stretch before or after every workout and fret if we can’t lean over and touch our toes. We gape enviously at yogis wrapping their legs around their ears. “It’s been drummed into people that they should stretch, stretch, stretch — that they have to be flexible,” says Dr. Duane Knudson, professor of biomechanics at Texas State University in San Marcos, who has extensively studied flexibility and muscle response. “But there’s not much scientific support for that.”
In fact, the latest science suggests that extremely loose muscles and tendons are generally unnecessary (unless you aspire to join a gymnastics squad), may be undesirable and are, for the most part, unachievable, anyway. “To a large degree, flexibility is genetic,” says Dr. Malachy McHugh, the director of research for the Nicholas Institute of Sports Medicine and Athletic Trauma at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York and an expert on flexibility. You’re born stretchy or not. “Some small portion” of each person’s flexibility “is adaptable,” McHugh adds, “but it takes a long time and a lot of work to get even that small adaptation. It’s a bit depressing, really.”
What happens to our muscles and tendons, then, when we dutifully stretch before a run or other workout? Doesn’t this lengthen our muscles, increasing our flexibility and range of motion?

According to the science, the answer appears to be no. “There are two elements” involved in stretching a muscle, Dr. McHugh says. One is the muscle itself. The other is the mind, which sends various messages to the muscles and tendons telling them how to respond to your stretching when the discomfort of the stretching becomes too much. What changes as you stretch a muscle is primarily the message, not the physical structure of the muscle. “You’ll start to develop a tolerance” for the discomfort of the stretch, Dr. McHugh says. Your brain will allow you to hold the stretch longer. But the muscles and tendons themselves will not have changed much. You will feel less tight. But even this sensation of elasticity is short-lived, Dr. McHugh says. In a new review article of the effects of stretching that he co-wrote and that will be published soon in The Scandinavian Journal of Medicine and Science in Sports, he looked at the measurable impacts of a number of different stretching regimens. What he found was that when people performed four 90-second stretches of their hamstrings, their “passive resistance” to the stretching decreased by about 18 percent — they felt much looser — but the effect had passed in less than an hour. To achieve a longer-lasting impact, and to stretch all of the muscles involved in running or other sports, he says, would probably require as much as an hour of concerted stretching. “And the effects still wouldn’t be permanent,” he says. “You only see changes” in the actual, physical structure of the muscles “after months of stretching, for hours at a time. Most people aren’t going to do that.”
And most of us don’t need to. “Flexibility is a functional thing,” Dr. Knudson says. “You only need enough range of motion in your joints to avoid injury. More is not necessarily better.” For runners, extremely tight hamstrings and joints have been found in some studies (but not all studies) to contribute to overuse injuries. But somewhat tight hamstrings, as the Nebraska Wesleyan study showed, can make you more economical. Some degree of inflexibility may make you a better runner.
How then to judge your own flexibility? “The sit-and-reach test is pretty good” for at-home evaluations, Dr. Knudson says, at least of your back and hamstring muscles. Using a staircase, sit and straighten your legs so that your feet push against the bottom step, toes upright. Stretch forward. “Try to lay your chest onto your thighs,” he says. If you can reach past your toes, you’re more than flexible enough. (No one yet has devised a way to reduce flexibility, by the way, although some Olympic-level coaches in other countries are rumored to be trying.)
If, on the other hand, “you can’t get anywhere near your toes, and the lower part of your back is practically pointing backward” as you reach, then you might need to try to increase your hamstring flexibility, Dr. Knudson says, to avoid injuring yourself while running, cycling or otherwise exercising. You can find multiple hamstring stretches on YouTube, although you should consult with a physical therapist before replicating them at home; proper technique is important to avoid injury. “You won’t get a lot of change,” Dr. Knudson says, ” but a little may be all you need.”

Jingle Cross (videos) and other Top Results.

2009-12-02T08:14:00.000-08:00

New Website is LIVE!

New, updated, and awesome: http://source-e.net

Breaking News! The Streak Continues!

It's official, Tom Price is going fast! Including ALL THREE RACES at Jingle CX , Tom has climbed to the top podium step in 5 consecutive races and 6 times in November. Want more? 4 of the 6 wins are at national level races, meaning fierce competition from the best within a 1 day drive or around 500 miles. Still want more? The WINS are in four different staes! Kansas, New Jersey, Nebraska, Iowa. How many riders can say that? STILL want more? Tom is at the races all day, working the pits when he's not racing! Tom has been progressing all season and is right on track for Nationals coming up in Bend, OR in two weeks time. Stay tuned for more!

If you see Tom, do NOT mention this. "Never talk to a pitcher when he's throwing a perfect game."

The Last Kiss CX East Grand Rapids, MI 11/29
Tom Burke. Men Elite: 1st!

Jingle CX, UCI C2. Iowa City, IA. 11/27-29.
Jingle CX III (11/29)

Joseph Schmalz. Men Elite: 17th

Shadd Smith. Men Elite: 25th.

Tom Price. Masters Men 40+: 1st!

Dean Parker. Master Men 55+: 3rd.

Jingle CX II (11/28)
Tom Price. Masters Men 40+: 1st!
Wanda Simchuk. Masters Women 35+: 2nd.
Dean Parker. Masters Men 55+. 2nd.
Shadd Smith. Men Elite: 18th.
Adam Mills. Men Elite: 25th.

Jingle CX I (11/27)
Tom Price. Master's 40+: 1st!
Scott Fleming. Master's 40+: 6th
Shadd Smith. Men Elite (UCI C2): 17th.

Jingle CX Recap.....
Mud. That was the theme of the weekend. Not really mud, but more like horse poop. Sticks to everything and the only way off is with a power sprayer. That's where the KCCX Pit Crew stepped up. All weekend, in multiple races The riders not racing were manning the pits so that KCCX riders would have bikes that went fast and go fast they did. Multiple top placings including the first win from Alex Edwards racing the 2/3 Men. Watch him, he's on the move.... Thanks to all the Pit Crew because without them, not a single rider would have been able to race to his/ her full ability. It was definitely nice to be able to haul ass into the pit, to the handoff, and jump on a clean and well working bike. Such a luxury.

Jingle CX is probably one of the most fun trips I take all year. Iowa City is like gem in the middle of... well, Iowa. College towns are typically like that though. Groovy. The races are probably the most humbling of any CX race I do all year. Sure there are technical parts of every CX race, but this race relentless. Every year, only the strong AND the one who can drive a bike the best will win. Having either is not enough. Also, you absolutely can not be afraid to fall down. I stopped counting after about 6 on the weekend and I know everyone fell or nearly fell in every race, every day. Don't lie to yourself. You're not an infallible bike driver.

Finally.......

Jingle Cross, the Video. Thanks to Keith Walburg!

Jingle Cross 2009: Friday Night Cross from Gizmo Pictures on Vimeo.

2009 US Cyclocross Nationals Course Preview

2009-12-01T07:11:00.000-08:00

New Website Live! AND Athletes Showing Top Form Nationwide!

2009-11-28T09:20:00.000-08:00

New Website is LIVE!
New, updated, and awesome:
http://source-e.net

Breaking News!
It's official, Tom Price is going fast! Including Friday night AND Saturday at Jingle CX , Tom has climbed to the top podium step in 4 consecutive races and 4 times in November. Want more? 3 of the 5 wins are at national level races, meaning fierce competition from the best within a 1 day drive or around 500 miles. Still want more? The WINS are in four different staes! Kansas, New Jersey, Nebraska, Iowa. How many riders can say that? STILL want more? Tom is at the races all day, working the pits when he's not racing! Tom has been progressing all season and is right on track for Nationals coming up in Bend, OR in two weeks time. Stay tuned for more!

If you are in Iowa and you're reading this, don't tell Tom! "Never talk to a pitcher when he's throwing a perfect game."

Jingle CX, UCI C2. Iowa City, IA. 11/27-29.
Jingle CX II (11/28)
Tom Price. Masters Men 40+: 1st!
Wanda Simchuk. Masters Women 35+: 2nd.
Dean Parker. Masters Men 55+. 2nd.
Shadd Smith. Men Elite: 18th.

Jingle CX I (11/27)
Tom Price. Master's 40+: 1st!
Scott Fleming. Master's 40+: 6th
Shadd Smith. Men Elite (UCI C2): 17th.

2009 Mellow Johnnys Classic at Juan Pelotas Ranch. Dripping Springs, TX. 11/ 22.
Bryan Fawley. Men Elite: 2nd.
Cyclingnews.com report here

Jon Toner. Men Cat2 30-34: 5th.

Indy CX . Indianapolis, IN. 11/21-22
Tom Burke. Men Elite: 3rd Saturday; 2nd Sunday.

Lincoln CX. Lincoln, NE. 11/21-22

Tom Price: Master's 40+: 1st!

Scott Fleming. Single Speed: 3rd. Sunday.

Dean Parker. Saturday: Masters 40+: 10th, Single speed: 3rd

Sunday: Masters 40+: 6th, Single Speed: 4th
Dean typically competes in the 55+ category!

Joseph Schmalz invited to EuroCrossCamp 7.0!

2009-11-24T12:28:00.000-08:00

A big congratulations to Joseph. Here's the first line of his acceptance letter....

"Congratulations Joe,

You have been selected to attend EuroCrossCamp 7.0."

Cyclingnews writes:

http://www.cyclingnews.com/features/euro-cross-camp-is-a-go

Joseph is 19 years old competing as the youngest member of the U-23 representatives. The difference between 19 and 23 years is an enormous difference in physical maturity. Congratulations to Joe, and to everyone else... keep an eye on him.

Help Joseph get to Europe by donating here. All donations are to help him offset the costs incurred with this opportunity.

Source Endurance Athletes Earning Results Throughout Continental USA!

2009-11-16T14:46:00.000-08:00

Wow. Just WOW! Five States, lots of podium steps. It's always nice to see the culmination of some hard work. Some folks are just hitting top form for their peak events and it shows! Congratulations to everyone who competed and check out the athletes that climbed podium steps in New Jersey, Louisiana, Michigan, Kansas and Texas.....

USGP: Mercer Cup- Day 2. Trenton, New Jersey results here

Tom Price: Masters Men 45+: 1st Place.

Tom Price's hardware.

KISS Cross CX; East Grand Rapids, MI results here
Tom Burke. Men Elite: 1st. Place.

Tom Burke en route to victory

Louisiana Trail Run Marathon 50k; Shreveport, LA results here

Jerry Bueno. Male 1 and Over: 2nd Place, 6th Overall.

KS State CX Championships; Leavenworth, KS results here

Shadd Smith. Men Open: 1st.
Adam Mills. Men 30-35: 1st.
Dean Parker. Men 55+: 1st.
Wanda Simchuk. Women Open: 2nd.
Scott Fleming. Single Speed: 2nd, Men 45+: 3rd.
Mark Cole. Men 3/4: 5th.

Shadd Smith negotiates the slop

Dean Parker shows off the new SE kit

Mark Cole, just as the mud-fest begins.

Cyclocross Scuffle. Austin, TX.

Connor Cartland. Men Open: 3rd.

Connor hits the GO! button.

Source Endurance Takes Stock in Joseph Schmalz

2009-11-13T10:32:00.000-08:00

Throughout the career of every successful cyclist, there are others with more talent, more drive, and less means that never have the opportunity. Through grass roots development and a number of caring individuals and corporations, a pipeline for the up and coming riders has been established thanks to the KCCX/ Verge Cyclo-cross team and Bill Marshall. KCCX/ Verge has done its part to develop young riders under the guidance of some of the more level headed and upstanding veteran riders I have ever known.

Source Endurance is proud to sponsor Joseph Schmalz for the 2009-2010 Cyclocross season, not because of who he could be or what he could do, but for who he is and what he does now. Joseph is a true ambassador of cycling in all respects and disciplines. He understands that cycling holds different meaning to everyone and that ultimately they are all united by two wheels. Joseph also has been 100% on board with the methodology utilized by Source Endurance. It does take a certain amount of trust to allow the system to work. Joseph has done this and in the process, reaped the benefits of his targeted training all season long. Keep an eye on him because there will be more to come!

KCCX Fundraiser coming up on Thursday!

2009-11-11T09:24:00.000-08:00

The road ahead of us is going to be fast, muddy and painful! We are looking for the support of the cycling community to get our riders to all USGP, NACT and National Championship events for the remainder of the year. Come join us for the 2nd Annual KCCX/VERGE Team Fundraiser on November 12th, 2009. All proceeds will benefit the riders who are representing the Midwest Nationally and Globally. After a successful 2008 at Nationals and Europe we are headed back across the pond! We hope to see you soon at the team fundraiser. If you can't attend and you would like to make a donation please
visit: https://new.sportsbaseonline.com/events/index.xhtml?categoryId=10783

Date:	Thursday, November 12, 2009
Time:	6:00pm - 9:00pm
Location:	Trek Store of Kansas City

10412 Shawnee Mission Parkway
Shawnee, KS 66203

More Podium Steps to Climb!

2009-11-11T07:54:00.000-08:00

Heartland Park Topeka CX: Results here

Men Open: Joseph Schmalz, 1st. (pictured)
Women Open: Wanda Simchuk, 2nd.
Women 4: Aubree Dock, 2nd.
Masters 50+: Dean Parker, 2nd.
Single Speed: Scott Fleming, 2nd.

Veteran's CX. Leavenworth, KS: Results here

Men Open: Shadd Smith, 1st.(pictured); Adam Mills 5th.
Men 3/4: Mark Cole, 1st.
Women Open: Wanda Simchuk, 2nd.
Masters 45+: Scott Fleming, 3rd.
Single Speed: Scott Fleming, 2nd.

Congrats to all!

Also, a special announcement coming later this week. Stay tuned!

CX Season Blues. The dawg days of CX? Really?

2009-11-06T06:52:00.000-08:00

Attendance are numbers down, and races are still blistering fast; which means the pain and suffering factor is through the roof. Could it be? Could the Dog Days of CX be here? Completely possible. CX is like any other sport. Too much of a good thing causes burn out or burn up. There are few reasons and the rate of burnout varies across any sport but here's an overly generalized shake down of the Dog Days of CX.......

First. CX is a tough sport to apply any sort of periodization model to because of the compact season in the US. We're talking late September to mid- December (Natz). Sure it's different for the guys going to Europe and/ or World Championships; but how many of us is that really. Seriously, don't kid yourself. Anyways, because it's so short, any athlete trying to "get in shape during CX" is already behind the curve (which is why Source Endurance ran a CX Promo in August). Training blocks are not and can not be the typical 3:1 week system that most coaches diligently adhere to. Any build/ rest cycle must be very subtle and the athlete may not even notice when the 'rest' takes place. Taking a stab at the CX season without periodization, usually leads to a general decline in performance right when you need to be going the fastest, at the end. These cycles are all varying degrees of top end and MUST BE MONITORED VERY CLOSELY. It doesn't take much to overreach an athlete into a slump in a truly CX specific program. Factor in the shortness of the season and illness or slump could cost the athlete 1/4- 1/3 of the season very easily, or more!

Second, CX is hard. Plain and simple. CX is all the power and fatigue of a grueling 4 hour road race compressed into about 45-60 minutes of pure punishment. Sure its short but the mental toll of that much high intensity does wear on most riders. I've heard lots of talk about TSS and IF numbers in reference to CX. These numbers are misleading and CX requires a different method of using them. If you didn't understand the last two sentences, don't worry. You don't need to.

Third, most of us have already raced a full 2009 road season. This increases the number of competition days from 20-30 to 45-65 for most riders. That's a lot of days on the road, eating Subway, drinking bad gas station coffee, and breathing hotel air conditioner air, all of which adds even more travel stress. And finally, the weather. October was cold. Coldest on record in the Midwest. That makes training tough and racing more cumbersome. Factor in the thought of doing it for 6 more weeks and people tend to get tired just thinking about it.

Bring it all together and there you have it. A perfect recipe for the Dog Days of CX. This is the time of season where most athletes take one of two routes. Sometimes they choose the path. Sometimes they don't. Down one road, athlete either has already topped out in his/ her CX abilities for the season and will now start a steady decline in performance while they expand their repertoire of excuses to explain the slipping form. Or, taking the other turn, the athlete will seem to "find another gear" and continue to improve, getting faster to the point where (relatively speaking) they seem to be riding on a sidewalk while the others are slogging away on grass. Either of these scenarios sound familiar?

Source Endurance Clients Continue to Impress!

2009-11-02T19:37:00.000-08:00

Dean Parker

Boss Cross Masters 55+: 1st Saturday

Sunflower Cross. Masters 55+: 2nd. Single Speed: 1st.

Tom Price

Sunflower CX. Masters: 1st.

Wanda Simchuk
Boss Cross. Women Open: 2nd.

Shadd Smith
Sunflower CX. Men Open: 2nd.

Aubree Dock
Boss Cross. Women Open: 4th.

Source Endurance Athletes Making Noise in 4 Cities, 3 States, and 2 Timezones.

2009-10-28T12:43:00.000-07:00

Derby City CX, UCI C2. Louisville, KY

Saturday:
Joe Schmalz. U23: 3rd, Men Elite: 20th.

Sunday:
Joe Schmalz. U23: 4th, Men Elite: 24th.
Bryan Fawley Men Elite: 21st.
Tom Price. Master's 45+: 5th.

Smithville CX. Smithville, MO
Shadd Smith. Men Open: 3rd, Broken bikes: 1.
Wanda Simchuk. Women Open: 2nd
Scott Fleming. Masters 45+: 3rd. Single Speed: 4th.
Mark Cole. Men 3: 1st.

Shadd Smith. KCCX/ Verge

Wanda Simchuk

Weberville CX. Weberville, TX

Connor Cartland. Men 3/4: 1st. (pictured left)
Adam Mills. Men Open: 3rd.

Periwinkle Challenge. Houston, TX. charity fundraiser
Brandon Cowart: 1st

The Science of Coaching.

2009-10-27T20:59:00.000-07:00

Just start at the 5:35 mark. It really tells the key to using science in order to drive the coaching process.

USGP Kentucky UCI C2. Schmalz 3rd in U23

2009-10-24T18:08:00.001-07:00

Source Endurance Clients Invest in Portable Escalator Construction!

2009-10-20T07:46:00.000-07:00

Climbing podium steps is definitely making some tired legs for some SE clients. So much in fact that we are beginning construction on a mobile escalator unit!

Here they are, and some photos!

Photo by Laura Cossey

BLVD Brewery CX. race report here.
Men Open: Joe Schmalz 1st. Shadd Smith 2nd.
start of the Men Open Race.

(Thanks to Bruce Edwards).

Women Open: Wanda Simchuk 4th.
Men 50+: Dean Parker 2nd.

Wissahickon CX. Philly, PA UCI C2.
Bryan Fawley gathering some solid results!

Granogue CX. Wilmington, DE. UCI C2
Bryan Fawley misses a top 10 by a rear derailler.

Capital Cup CX.
Men Open: race report here. Adam Mills 5th. (I know there were photographers, but they're all MIA now)
Women Open: Wanda Simchuk 4th.
Men 50+: Dean Parker 2nd.
Women 4: Aubree Dock 1st.

2009 Terra Firma. 24 Hours of Rocky Hill.
3-4 Person Expert/ Pro: Jon Toner of TBD Racing. 2nd Place. Official results published here.

If you have photos, please send them this way!

Dean Parker's Take on the 50+ Chris CX

2009-10-15T06:35:00.000-07:00

Dean was kind enough to send a brief write up about his victory in last Sunday's CX race.

Had a good start, Doug Long and I lined up next to each other and were the first off the line. They started the 35's, 45's and 55's fifteen seconds between each group. Doug and I caught the tail end of the 45's by the top of the starting straight climb.

My goal was to go as hard and aggressive as possible the first lap to open a gap on Doug, it worked. After banging elbows with him the first few turns I was able to pass some riders and create a small gap. I kept working on that by accelerating out of turns and climbing as hard as possible.

I think I was much more aggressive in passing than I had been. Use every little straight sprint then not be worried about crowding them in the turn, make them slow down.

My favorite moment in the first lap was the double track followed by the sharp left to the mud hole. I came up on two riders side by side one in each track. I didn't slow down, just took the middle and shouted "COMING THROUGH" and sprinted between them. Made the hard left and saw five riders lining up single file to take left line around the mud hole. I had made a point in preriding to ride the right side. Didn't slow down, took the less obvious right line and passed all five at once. FUN!

Over all I felt good, tried to always pedal hard out of the turns and take advantage of any straights and the road where I could turn it up a notch. I open about a 15 second gap on Doug that I was able to hold most of the race. Although he did gain back some on the last lap.

Over all in the masters I finished 1st in the 55, 4th in the 45 and 11th in the 35. Fourth and eleventh were less than 10 seconds ahead at the finish.

A wonderful Testimonial!

2009-10-13T06:00:00.001-07:00

I know, it's shameless self promotion! However, part of my job is seeing my clients get stronger, faster and smarter. It does give me a very large sense of pride to see and hear of these accomplishments first hand.....

"Adam

I was starting to suspect that I was getting stronger but I did not have the real proof until today. Unfortunately for me a [a couple fast riders were] off racing but we were fortunate to have [other elite riders] show up at our ride. I missed my VO2 max workout because when I returned home yesterday it rained the entire day....so I rode today with 3 days of rest and I decided that I was going to do all my pulls in excess of 4 minutes and at the low VO2 max level (staying over 300 watts).

I was able to achieve the objective but the biggest thing is that I can not believe how much stronger I feel. I put in my best power numbers ever and NEVER felt that I was pushing to the limits!! I just could not believe how easy the ride was and I had TONS of energy at the end of the ride and drilled some very hard pulls. I easily kept up through the hills and had so much power left over that I sprinted at the very end...I have never done that in my life.

Several months ago prior to joining you I had a similar day where I felt unusually strong, on that day my normalized watts (NW) were 256 and Average Watts were 223. BUT today my NW were 264 and my average watts were 246...But the most surprising thing is that I never felt that I was pushing hard...it seemed like a really easy ride and I kept wondering why people were not drilling harder....

This is just unbelievable....

I can not wait for [all the usual supects] to get back and really start drilling the pace up...Thank you so much for all your help, and the time you spent with me on the phone."

Mike Moist
Houston, TX

Source Endurance Athletes Turn in Top Results across the Midwest!

2009-10-12T11:04:00.000-07:00

What a great weekend of racing across the Midwest! Two disciplines, two states, lots of fast racing!

Chris CX (Leavenworth, KS)
Women Open: Wanda Simchuk 2nd.
Men 55+: Dean Parker 1st
Men 3/4: Jason Knight 1st, Mark Cole 2nd.
Men Open: Joe Schmalz 1st

Texas Skill Based Road Race Championships
Men 3: Andrew Ennis 8th
Men 4: Jorge Martinez 5th.

Texas Age Based Road Races Champs
Men 50-55: Paul Hurdlow 5th.
Great riding by all!

Pre- Race Ramblings

2009-10-10T19:54:00.000-07:00

As I sit here, sipping on a glass of 2 buck chuck and watching UT absolutely destroy Colorado in what was a good game (until reality set in) some thoughts struck me and I couldn't help putting them on the blog-o-sphere.

First, I really hope there's some sort of starting procedure in tomorrow's CX race. Last week we started with 13 guys in the same space meant for 8 wide which meant that only those who are able to push and shove as they clip in are going to get those coveted and rare advantageous spots into the first corner. The flyers on all the local races say something like, "call up order will be in order of registration." I'd like to see that actually enforced. I'm not sure whose responsibility that is but it really can't be that tough to execute. With the races being so top heavy in talent and ability, along with some decent numbers toeing the line in all the categories, it's about time to get some order on the start line.

Second, I'm really impressed with the officials starting all the races on time the last few weeks. It seems like the status quo in Kansas was to run every race 20-30 minutes late and that it was, "okay" to do. I hope this continues to happen.

Third, I'm very pleased with the racing in the Midwest so far. With the ascension of some younger guys, along with some of the veterans stepping up their game, and some out of towners rolling in, there have been 5-6 guys lining up that are capable of scoring a UCI point on a good day. The result... and Shadd called it early this spring...this is the fastest and hardest CX year in the KC/ Midwest area. It makes it worthwhile to stay home and race some quality events, vs. spending the $$ to travel far and away.

Finally, with the increased attendance comes elevated competition. We are all seeing the status quo/ pecking order/ totem pole positions being challenged in every category. This means some epic battles are in store as the 2009 CX season kicks off.

See y'all Sunday!

Sport Specificity: The Power of Cyclo- cross

2009-10-06T07:24:00.000-07:00

Sport Specificity- "the principle of training that states that sports training should be relevant and appropriate to the sport for which the individual is training in order to produce a training effect." When this is applied to CX, it's important to remember that simply using the equipment, or just "riding around" on gravel or grass is not synonymous to CX, but more to road riding.

I've looked through numerous references for the metabolic demands of cyclocross on and off for years from numerous sources like Bing, Google and scholarly articles. Each time I'm met with disappointment. It just seems that there has been absolutely no peer reviewed research published on the subject. This leads me to believe one of two things. 1) The simply is no research done on the demands of CX. Or 2) There have been no published studies on the matter. For the sake of knowledge, I am optimistic that the second is the case. However, I must admit that it is equally likely that option 1 may be the truth due to CX not being an Olympic sport (note the publish date). So how do you train for CX?

My quest begins when I worked for a previous employer (as an intern who went on to become a Senior Level Coach) and had the thought that, "CX must be different than other disciplines when considering preparation." So I did what anyone else in my position would do. I asked the "higher ups." The answer was disappointing, at best. I was told to, "train them like they're doing a time trial and everything else is gravy." Gravy? Seriously? Not only was the answer just plain wrong, but it led me to believe that there wasn't really any sort of method to training for CX. Below are two pictures. One of a Time Trial, one of a CX race. Both have heart and power graphed. Which one is which? Just guess...... give it a try.......

Okay, so now we can at least agree that the two events are dramatically different. Back to the first paragraph.... I talked about searching for the knowledge and I've read countless declarations from different coaches, some with backgrounds in Exercise Physiology (which they typically brag about on their web 'profile'), most without any formal higher education , all of which I'm going to have to respectfully disagree with. This discipline is very specialized and therefore requires a very different approach. I began to implement some ideas about the execution of a more specific training approach with some clients as early as August and the dividends are starting to pay off. After talking with a couple different clients early this week, the comments were the same: "I've never done anything like that in training before. But I'm not complaining!"

Training was able to be focused very differently yet equal in effectiveness for these clients largely because of the use of power meters. The data these tools yield allow me to pinpoint and improve weaknesses in each athlete's ability. Most clients are not "happy" about the process of improving their weaknesses, but they sure do appreciate the benefits!

I'd love to spend an entire blog post or 2 or 3 dissecting, analyzing, and divulging my findings. Instead, I'll just let the results of last week's CX race do the "show and tell."

A Recap of results from the Boss CX 1 and 2 Events

Aubree Dock: 3rd Place in Women 4, Saturday.
Wanda Simchuk: 3rd. Women Open, Sunday.
Dean Parker: 2nd. Men 55+, Saturday
1st. Men 55+, Sunday
Jason Knight: 1st Place. Men 3-4, Saturday.
Mark Cole: 1st Place. Men 3-4, Sunday.
Joseph Schmalz: 1st Place. Men Elite, Saturday
1st Place. Men Elite, Sunday

Old School. They did the best they could with what they had.

2009-10-02T14:02:00.000-07:00

With Opening Day of the Cross season having hit nearly everywhere in the US now, I've overheard my fair share of this that and the other about ad hoc training, "proven" training, or excuses to not train and ride/ race. One thing I'll never be able to understand is the rationalization for the comment: "I'll just train Old School, by feel. Because that's what works."

Reality Check! Old School is just that. Old and antiquated!

First, let's take a look at THE cutting edge for the application of modern training knowledge and technology. The Olympic Training Center and their $374.7 million of assets at the end of 2008. Anyways, take a look at the US Olympic Training Center and their Performance Services. Everything is "state of the art, cutting-edge, highest of quality" etc. etc. Not once to they mention, "traditional approach, from the 1980's, or aged technology." Never.

How about some history of the Old School methodology while we're here.....
Everything is based on a biased and subjective Rating of Perceived Exertion Scale (RPE). This scale was established by Dr. Borg, circa 1970 as a way to measure aerobic training intensity in the field because of an inability to quantify workload or intensity due to unavailability of portable cycle ergometer (pronounced- "power meter"), or heart rate measuring devices (HRM). Let's also keep in mind that no race or athletic competition has EVER been won simply by doing "tempo."

RPE measures how hard a workout session "feels" vs. the absolute intensity (work output). In one large study, efforts at 60%, 73%, and 86% of VO2 max were all given the same RPE even though the duration was different. Throughout any aerobic training session, RPE numbers trend upwards, despite a constant or decreasing workload which hints that RPE is also linked to fatigue. Therefore it can only moderately coupled with Heart Rate response or lactate production, at best.

Much of the performance training based on RPE research ended in the mid-1980s due to improvement in HR and power meter technologies. As a primary training variable, RPE is no longer used at the Olympic, Professional, or Elite level to dictate training intensities and is only used as a tertiary training variable that mostly measures feedback.

This makes sense as none of us drive our 1986 cars or use that old Comodore 64 computer. Also, when we think about the evolution of sport, then the application of power meters and more complex physiological measurement/ quantification when compared to the "Old School" method becomes a necessity if one is to outperform the competition. Sport performance has always used the best that technology can offer to see consistant improvement. The "by feel" method WAS the best at the time (until the 80's). Then it was followed by heart rate, which WAS the best way to measure and prescribe training at the time (until the mid 1990's). Now training with power IS the best method of measuring and prescribing training. Michael Phelps never jumped in the pool, turned a few thousand "tempo" meters, and then went to win 8 medals. And you can bet Fabian Cancellara doesn't "just ride around" and dominate the field in the World TT Championships. They both use training methods much more comprehensive and complex. Why would anyone who is passionate about their sport, or whose job depends on performance, ever settle for mediocrity, especially when the ability to drastically improve is readily available?

I'm not saying it's a bad method, just like I'm not saying I don't like driving a '69 Impala. There's simply better ways to go fast.

I'll leave you with this.....

The "gifted athletes" will always be that. They will always be fast but they may never know how fast they can truly become.

If you spend thousands of your hard earned dollars on a bike, you expect it to go fast. And it should. It's a competent piece of equipment that feels fast and probably is fast. However, a bike doesn't make the rider go faster. Only the rider makes the rider go faster. If one invests countless hours of training with the goal to go that one little bit faster, the best use of that time/ energy investment must also be made. We all look for a reason why we don't perform at the level we think we should, when sometimes the hard and honest answer could be, "I just am not fast enough." But, how often does such a hard truth really need to be so?

Source Endurance Athletes Go Fast and Get Dirty!

2009-09-28T06:02:00.000-07:00

I always feel a sense of pride whenever I have a client perform at his/ her highest level. Here are some stories from the weekend. Have some of your own? Be sure to let me know!

USGP of Cyclocross!
Saturday
Saturday's course was fast and furious, and with the best CX riders in the US coming directly to Madison from Cross Vegas, it was going to be tough to crack the top placings. However, Saturday saw Joe Schmalz come from the 7th row to score a top 20 in a UCI C1 event. Not only that, but he placed 2nd in U23 Classification, gaining him some valuable USGP points. That is incredible! Although, I'd like to say, not unexpected. Joe has been showing some fantastic improvement across the board throughout 2009 and he's not done yet! Keep an eye out for more of Joe Schmalz in the near future!

Joe Schmalz. 2nd Place USGP. U23.

Sunday
As the story goes, it started raining just prior to the event turning all the bare dirt from the day before into slippery, slimy mud...... Great conditions for two SE athletes, Joe Schmalz and Bryan Fawley. The mud made the race a test of pure power and toughness. The result (click on the "Sunday" link)? Joe 18th and Bryan 19th. Joe also placed 3rd in the U23 Classification further solidifying his position in the USGP. Great riding to both!

Joe Schamlz. 3rd Place USGP. U23.

Diamond Blackfan CX.

Shadd Smith rides away from the competition with Steve Tilford to make it a Tradewind Energy 1-2 in the Men's Open race. This marks the beginning of the true CX season for Shadd as he is now shifting all his training to be completely CX specific in multiple modalities. Great hustle from Shadd!

Stretching for Cycling: Brad Huff Style!

2009-09-25T06:00:00.000-07:00

This time of year, I get lots of questions about how to make yourself more flexible. Well, here's the one and only Brad Huff to show us how it's done!

Shadd Smith shows how to peak for the Gateway Cup and Beyond!

2009-09-22T06:00:00.000-07:00

Photo from "Outside Magazine"

Peaking should be simple right? "train hard, rest, recover, PEAK!" Simple. Well..... not so much. Everyone peaks a little different and the timing of a peak is different for everyone, yet also crucial to the athlete. Without an objective way to decipher how your performance is progressing, peaking becomes a guessing game.

Some people think that peaking happens immediately following a rest. Some can't rest or they'll be stale. Some need to rest, then build into a peak shortly thereafter. Some just think they're resting when actually they're not. Some just.... well, you get the idea. The bottom line: You need to be objective in order to understand how you peak and how to best use that to help you. Hopefully, that can help all of us avoid that particularly frustrating scenario of peaking just after your BIG EVENT. I see that happen more often than not... where the peak is missed by 5-10 days. D'oh!

I'm going to talk about Shadd because deciphering how his peak truly worked and how best to extend it for multiple days challenged me. It took some time, and some combing through power files before we dialed Shadd in... just in time for Gateway Cup! The result: 4 top placings at the premier event in the Midwest, new season Max Powers for all time indices between 35s and 0:02:18. Also, new 2009 season Max powers between 0:4:47- 1:43:27. That's an across the board significant improvement in his ability! This can be credited with the superb field and hard racing but Shadd still had to be able to produce these numbers or they wouldn't happen.

Furthermore, the final 5 minutes of an Elite Criterium are typically where you'll see the hardest efforts of the day. During those, Shadd produced some normalized powers of: Friday: 364W, Saturday: 443W, Sunday: 371W, Monday: 441W. Those are definitely "WOW!" numbers and PRO quality. What does that tell me about his form? It means that he's holding his form throughout the 4 day event without any drop off. Shadd trusted me with the responsibility to get him on form and so far, we're both delivering!

Shadd then continued his upward trend from Gateway by notching a win in this year's Hermann Cross: Under the lights. Keep an eye on him as he mixes it up with the big boys at Vegas Cross!

Obviously, Shadd can tell the story of his 2009 success better than I can. If you see him, just ask!

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Come join us on March 4th!

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Experience is a key to success

SE Riders in the Results:

Epic One on the Trails

Logan Von Bokel joins the Source Endurance family!

Source Endurance looks for quick start to Belterra!

Tour of New Braunfelds

High Intensity Training Part 3.

SE Athlete Shadd Smith Selected for the 2010 Gary Fisher 29'er Crew!

SE Clients make showing in the final CX races of the season! Jan. 17th.

High Intensity Training, Part Dos!

Joseph Schmalz Featured for a Second Time at Podium Insight!

High Intensity Training, Part Uno

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SE Athlete Jon Toner Undefeated in 2010!

Did you know?

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Cross Out the Old Year!

Season's Greetings!

Source Endurance Athlete Joe Schmalz featured on PodiumInsight.com!

KCCX . Totally Legit!

Lawrence cyclist to race in Europe

http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2009/dec/16/lawrence-cyclist-race-europe/?sports

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